


Love can change a Monster

by GirlZombieSlayer



Category: Original Work
Genre: Apocalypse, Blood and Gore, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, I struggle with that sometimes, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:22:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 43,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25293874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlZombieSlayer/pseuds/GirlZombieSlayer
Summary: Creatures considered other worldly, that violate the law of nature, are captured once their presence is known. Some are safe, some are highly dangerous but there’s those in between. What would happen if a containment breach happened and the creatures were set free on an island? Asena, a scientist for the organization that was capturing those creatures, has to live through that but not alone but with one of the dangerous creatures that found itself...herself attached to Asena.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 14
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Rayne has been an OC I’ve had for a very long time well...for about as long as Silent Hill Downpour came out cause I originally made her for that but ultimately never used her. So I reworked her and while she’s still just as deadly, I worked her into this world.
> 
> All characters belong to me unless I state otherwise, like if a friend of mine gives me an OC to work with, but anything involving social medias, tv shows, movies, books, ect do not belong to me unless I mention otherwise. Some mythological or supernatural creatures will be used in my work but obviously I'm not the one who came up with the name for a wendigo or a werewolf.
> 
> Keep in mind this is my first time writing something...like this. I'm used to zombie stuff and whatever else but I did my best and I hope you all enjoy :) If there is any spelling mistakes, please lemme know. I re-read my things so many times but even when everything looks good, I miss a few things here and there.

Doctor Juniper Marlowe was tapping her fingers against the keys of the keyboard connected to the desk top she was currently parked in front of. She reached her right hand to the side and grabbed the mug that might or might not have said ‘World’s Best Mom’ written on it and took a sip of the hot coffee in it.

“All scientists and interns with level three classification need to report to the briefing room in ten minutes.” spoke the woman over the intercom.

Juniper ignored that, she had level 5 classification and didn’t need to attend some briefing cause some level 3 idiot accidentally got someone killed because they let some creature on their level manipulate them. She heard a noise but ignored it until she had a weird feeling and looked up at the window of the containment room in front of her desk to see blood red eyes staring not at her but at the photo of Juniper’s daughter that she had. She quickly stood up and lowered it.

“What’s her name?” asked the female humanoid creature, CS-0289 or Rayne as she liked to be called.

“Like I’d tell you?”

The dark haired woman’s abnormally long tongue ran across her top teeth as she stared at her. “She’s pretty.”

Juniper’s mouth twitched a little. “Thank you but you’re not learning her name.” she hissed before sitting back down on the chair and turning the frame toward herself so Rayne could not see it anymore. The woman hummed before tilting her head to the side, she almost looked innocent but anyone that worked on her knew better. Most of the staff was men and the women that did work on her had to be thoroughly screened in order to esure that they either were not attracted to the same sex or wouldn’t be bothered by Rayne if they were; the later being a lot of trail and error really.

The woman had several kidnappings and murders under her belt, she would lure women in and attempt some ritual on them but if they denied her, which they all did, and they all were found mutilated and only a small portion of those women lived. Whatever her ritual was, nobody knew because she wouldn’t tell, all they knew was that the ritual itself wasn’t good and several of the women had been killed during the ritual rather than them denying her and her losing her temper.

“When is my breakfast coming?”

“Are you lonely today?” inquired Juniper as she saw an IM pop up that said Dr. A. Marlowe.

“Meaning?”

Juniper rolled her eyes and looked up at Rayne. “You only engage in conversation when you’re lonely or bored.” she spoke as she opened IM.

_Dr. A. Marlowe: Do I need to get you anything when I go to town?_

“Do you request anything?”

“Yeah, my fucking breakfast.”

The door opened and Juniper pointed as a man in a hazmat suit minus the helmet walked in carrying the tray, right on time every day at 8:30am. “I ask again, do you request anything today?”

The man unlocked the door and opened it enough to place the tray on the table before closing it quickly as if Rayne would get him in a second and relaxed it. The blood red eyed woman turned her attention back to Juniper. “Apples. I’d like some apples and a pomegranate or two.”

Turning her attention to her computer, Juniper replayed.

_Dr. J. Marlowe: CS-0289 requests some apples and pomegranates. Get her a bag of each, it’ll shut her up._

_Dr. A. Marlowe: You’re so mean, mom lol_

_Dr. J. Marlowe: Be safe in town. I’ll see you at lunch. Love you._

Closing the IM after seeing ‘love you too’ pop up, she turned her attention back to the window to see that Rayne was no longer standing there but carrying her tray of breakfast to the table she often ate at. She wasn’t okay with her daughter agreeing to often doing request runs for the CS, contained specimens, she studied but she always checked in with Juniper to see if she or any of her specimens needed anything. Shaking her head, she returned to what she had been working on before she was so rudely interrupted.

The Island of Andromeda, really just called Andromeda Isle, had a large city like say one of Hawaii’s islands but they also had well populated towns of a few thousand with family owned stores and businesses, everyone practically knew everyone. It was where Asena had grown up, having been born in the med bay of O.W.C.O., Otherworldly Containment Organization, cause her mother was such a workaholic she literally worked until her water broke. She was homeschooled until she was around eight years until, when her mother enrolled her into Andromeda Elementary School and she went on to finish her schooling, graduating high school at 15 and college at around 19-20 years old. At 17 she had been hired as hee mother’s paid intern and after graduating college, she had been hired as a scientist by their boss and CEO.

Asena was sitting on the seat on the train that ran between the Andromeda Town SkyTrain station up to OWCO, it was mostly called a SkyTrain for the sole purpose of it’s rails being on top of the trainer rather than bellow. She had her legs crossed as she looked out one of the windows, she wasn’t alone one the train, there were a few other employees either on their way home from their shifts or on their lunch breaks or perhaps they were doing what she was, going to get their specimens their lunches. She ran a hand through her auburn hair and kept looking out the window as she exhaled, bouncing her right leg as it crossed over her leg and her heel was dangling off the toes of her foot. The train came to a stop and the doors opened, the young woman rising from her seat and stepping out after a few others stepped out and she pocketed her hands, the wind coming off the ocean was a bit chilly for a mid-May day but summer was around the corner. She jogged down the steps of the train station and walked into the town.

Andromeda Isle was a tourist attraction, the largest building in the entire town the OWCO was above was just a hotel. The island had beautiful beaches and near crystal clear lakes. The city was about an hours drive from this town, the OWCO choosing the town to build near since a lot of their staff that didn’t live in the facility like Asena or her mother lived in the town. She made her way to the fish market, she’d prefer to get that out of the way first.

“Hello Asena!” said one of the men at the fish market.

“I need my usual.” she stated making him nod and write it down.

“Why do you need three live squids anyways?” asked the man.

Shit, it’s not like she could openly tell her that they had a scaley, mermaid like woman with two legs that liked to devour live squids. “Our chef prefers fresh seafood for his meals. He doesn’t like them being dead for too long before he gets them.” she lied.

He nodded, seeming to take that as an excuse. “I will get the squid packaged and brought to the security booth by the time the next train comes.” She knew that was in like ten minutes of the current time but there was no way she’d be done in time. She gave them the credit card that she CEO gave those that went to buy food for their specimens and watched as he swiped it to pay for the squids before passing it back to her. “Thank you.”

“See you next time.” he said, making her nod and leave the fish market to head towards the store she always loved going to, it was down the road from the fish market.

It was a candy, pastry, snack shop but it sold stuff like plushies and what not, she got a lot of her forgien candy and snacks there. The owners were a lovely couple, Martha and Pete and they ran it with some family members but she never really saw them, she occasionally saw one or two other workers but most of the time it was Martha or Pete given the time she always came. She opened the door and saw Martha behind the counter as her husband was stocking. “Asena!” smiled Martha. The woman was a slightly plump woman but cute, with dark brown hair that was graying in some spots.

“Heya.” she chuckled.

“Haven’t seen you in a few days.”

She didn’t need to be here, she stocked up on what she fed the CS-0312s. “Ah yeah, I stocked up last time I was here remember? I finished the last of it last night so…” she trailed off with a smirk.

Asena picked up a basket by the door and ran a hand through her hair to push it out of her face. “How’s work been going?” asked Martha as she closed the register, having been counting the money as Asena walked in.

The auburn haired woman touched a pack of scrunchies that she saw near the counter, she prefered having her hair up during work but all she did this morning was a bunch of paperwork. “Um, stressful.” she answered before taking a pack down. They had cutesy looking patterns on it like cherries or even cherry blossom petals. “I had a bunch of paperwork to do this morning. So I’m grateful to be down here for a bit.”

“How long do you have?” asked Pete as he walked around the counter near their cupcake displays. He was somewhere between fit and around the same size as Martha, he had muscles in his arms which she chalked up to him lifting product for the past few years but he had a little bit of a belly. His hair was black and his beard was showing more gray than his actual hair.

Asena looked at the clock on the wall behind the counter. “I have an hour before I need to head back. Can I get a few bags of that bagged candy I get? The ones that are shaped like stars?” she asked as Pete nodded, ducking into the back room as Martha watched the woman young and leaned against the counter. Similar to Asena, both Martha and Pete had been on the island but were nearly two decades older than her with no kids, they tried to have children but from what she was told by Martha, they had around three miscarriages before they ultimately gave up. The two were lovely with children and knew if they actually managed, they would’ve been wonderful parents.

Martha hummed as she saw Asena look at something. “How's your mom?”

“Stressed. As perusal.”

“Is it still classified or…”

“Classified.” she spoke quickly. She hated lying to Martha and Pete but it was in the contract.

Pete came back out and set five packs of the candy she requested on the counter. “Five good? Or do you wanna get a box and stock up?”

Asena pursed her lips in thought. Stocking up would be a good idea but she could always come back in a day or two and do that. “Nah, I’ll come back in a few days and stock up. I’d need help and they’re not going to let you into the building if you try to help me so…” she trailed off and he nodded in understanding.

She grabbed a couple of bags of gummies in the shape of cat paws before looking at the little plushies that sat to the right of the gummies. Little cat plushies dressed up as some form of profession; firefighter, cop, emt, doctor, teacher, and so on. She picked up one of them and chuckled; it was a little orange tiger cat wearing a white lab coat, wearing safety glasses and holding a chemistry beaker in its paw; a scientist. She put it into the basket and kept looking around the store, they always tried to stock new things in the store every week and since she hadn’t been here for almost an entire week, she wanted a good look around before leaving.

Upon finding the rock candy, she looked at the bagged rock candy and clicked her tongue before raising her eyes to the jars of rock candy that sat on the shelving above the bags. She grabbed a jar of grape rock candy and a jar of cherry rock candy, they were jars of around 62 and she got the largest ones the couple sold cause she had a tendency to just work on paperwork and eat rock candy, first time she bought just a bag of six...it was all gone with in two hours. She put the basket on the counter and Martha unloaded it as the young woman pulled out her wallet before looking to the side.

“What is that?” she asked pointing at the display case that mostly had cupcakes in it.

Pete looked at what she was pointing at and chuckled. “Martha calls them crystal rock cookies or geode cookies, she hasn’t decided.”

“Is that…”

“There’s rock candy in it.” he confirmed.

Martha saw Asena staring at the cookies as if debating. “Get her a box.” she laughed. “And get her mother something.” She saw Asena go to open her mouth but held up a hand. “They’re on the house.”

“Thank you.” she smiled before paying for the candy for the CS-0312 with the company credit card and then using her own to pay for her stuff.

Taking her bags, she waved and left the store to head to the next few stores and finish getting what she had to get for everyone else. It took another thirty minutes before she arrived at a small grocery store and grabbed a full bag of pomegranates and a bag of apples. Those stores were more busy at the moment than the others so she didn’t try and converse with any of the employees and instead tried to hurry up so she could get back to O.W.C.O. with some time to spare so she could hit the cafeteria and get something to eat rather than wait in line at one of the restaurants around town. It would be so much easier if she was at work when she was called early than just getting to the train. Swiping her pass, she got onto the train and sat her stuff down on the floor by her legs as other members of staff ran in.

She broke the cardboard packaging holding the scrunchies and used her teeth to break the plastic tie before taking the black scrunchie that had white cat paws on it and gathered her hair up before tying it back into a high ponytail before relaxing in the seat as she pulled her phone out. It wouldn’t be long until she reached the O.W.C.O. train station but she wanted to keep herself occupied on the way. She saw several messages from her colleague Dr. Leon Thompson about the CS-0312 and that he had something to show her when she got in, well first he was freaking out in what she would assume was a happy way and then going on to tell her that she’d love what she saw.

The train eventually reached the station and she grabbed her bags and left, walking through the one of the many double doors to enter the large facility. She flashed her badge and she was allowed in without any fuss. “Dr. Marlowe.” a security officer came up alongside her, she hummed in acknowledgement. “The squid has been delivered and we had it brought to the proper floor.”

“Thank you.” she smiled before moving to the elevator and clicking the up button.

“Oh the boss wanted to see you.”

“Why?” she asked in confusion.

“I don’t know, she said she’d be having lunch about this hour and to meet her in the cafeteria.”

Asena sighed and nodded, it was where she was going anyways. She said her thanks once more and stepped into the elevator as it opened. She pressed the button for level 3 and the doors came to a close before the elevator began to rise. She exhaled slowly and tilted her head back as she stared up at the ceiling, her fingers flexing before she regripped on the plastic bag handles. She really needed to start shopping with tote bags or buying them, the mishmash of items she had would raise any eyebrows if the backs broke open; candy for the thirty CS-0321 they had, several packets dried fish snacks for the CS-0792, a bag of actual gold fish for CS-2123, the squids were thankfully delivered cause carrying that would’ve been a bitch in a half, and two bags of pomegranates and fruit for her mother’s CS-0289. The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, she stepped out and quickly stepped back to avoid a bunch of scientists running down the hallway.

If Asena had to guess, they weren’t fully fledged scientists but were interns. They seemed to...excited but then again they could’ve had a breakthrough with their specimens cause there had been times she and Leon took off racing down the hallway in excitement. Her mother never acted that way when it came to CS-0289, that was perhaps the only specimen that seemed to piss her mother off. Inhaling deeply, the young woman walked towards the cafeteria wondering if her mother had ever run like that when she first started, had her mother been excited at one point?

The doors to the cafeteria were wide open as they always were except maybe around midnight when they were closed but always unlocked for those working late to come and get food. She stepped in and looked for the boss in charge of the level 5 classification scientists, she did find her midway through the sweep of the cafeteria. She was a tall woman, taller than Asena at least, with blonde hair that was pulled back into a bun with glasses on her face as she was eating what looked like a salad.

She moved over quickly, avoiding co-workers and over excited interns. “Ma’am, you wanted to see me?” she asked as she got beside the table the older woman was sitting at.

“I need you to go get your mother.”

“Mother said I’m not allowed in the observation lab of two eighty nine.”

The woman looked up at her and seemed annoyed. “Who is your boss?”

“You are Dr. Lycan.” she managed.

The blonde nodded and tapped her fork against her plate before looking at Asena. “I am your boss and…”

Asena knit her brows together as she tried to debate whether to follow the order she had been given or listen to her mother. “Anyone who enters two eighty-nine’s…”

“Asena.” fuck she used her name. The only time she did that was when they were off duty.

“Mom’s going to be pissed if this is a booty call.” she muttered under her breath, loud enough for her Amelia Lycan to hear but not loud enough for anyone else to hear.

Amelia had been dating Juniper on and off for the past twenty years and even though she was their boss, she was very good with Asena but she had her bitchy moments...like right now. “Sweetie, just...go get your mother please. I’ll take your things to your office.”

She grabbed the bags when Asena reached into one to pull out the bag of apples and pomegranates. “Right but if I get in trouble, you’re getting in trouble.” she said, making Amelia snicker.

Juniper was sitting at her desk, pinching the bridge of her nose as she heard light tapping on the window in front of her. Consistent tapping that didn’t want to stop no matter how many times she asked politely. She looked up over her glasses to see Rayne staring at her, a toothy grin showing as she tapped her right index claw like nail against the glass.

“Rayne…”

“Hm?” she asked as she tapped the claw in three quick taps.

“Will you please fucking stop?”

Rayne smirked, her left fang like canines showing in her toothy smile. “So hostile. I’m bored.”

“Then fucking type or do whatever you do on your typewriter.” she hissed in annoyance.

The 7 foot tall woman stood up and sighed. “Out of paper remember? I need more.”

Juniper took her glasses off and rubbed at her face, mentally wishing she could strangle CS-0289 at the moment. “You piss me off so much.” The pleased look on Rayne’s face was all she needed to know, Rayne was happy at this fact. “You…”

The door hissed opened and Asena walked in. “Mom I know I’m not allowed in here but…” she stopped as she locked eyes with Rayne. Blood red eyes locking with blue and the grin on Rayne’s face widened.

“GET OUT!” shouted Juniper spinning around. “ASENA GET OUT!”

Asena didn’t move and swore it felt like something was pulling her towards the woman. Juniper moved, knocking her chair over and grabbed her daughter around the waist to hoist her off her feet, the young woman dropping the bags of fruit that she had with her. “Juniper…” tried the woman as Juniper quickly opened the door. “JUNIPER BRING HER BACK!”

The young woman’s eyes widened at how distorted Rayne’s voice got and the lights began to rapidly blink on and off, settling once Juniper got Asena out of the way. The older woman didn’t set her daughter down until they reached the medbay, nearly tossing her onto the bed. “What the fuck mom?!”

“You know you’re not allowed in there!”

Oh shit, her mother was pissed. “Dr. Lycan told me to go in there anyways to get you!” she rushed out.

Juniper opened her mouth to say something and stopped. “Oh that fucking bitch. You!” she pointed at one of the doctors. “Check her for side effects! She was near two eighty-nine!”

“Two eighty-one doesn’t...and she’s gone.” spoke the doctor, he sighed and looked at Asena. “She has no side effects, I promise. Your mom’s being...your mom. You go back to work.”

“I felt...something weird though.” she stated making him look confused. “Like something was trying to pull me towards her.”

He chuckled and looked at the young woman that rose off the bed. “CS two eighty-nine has no side effects. She’s practically benign compared to some of the other dangerous creatures we have in the facility. I mean if she gets her claws on you and you get her upset, then you’ll probably end up mutilated or dead but she doesn’t affect you by looking at you. If I had to guess, you were attracted to her.”

Attracted to CS-0289? If that was true, how in the world would her mother even handle that if she told her. She shook her head and stood up. “I need to go feed the CS three twenty-ones.” she spoke before leaving.

She quickly moved out of the medbay and walked down the hallway quickly. No, she wasn’t attracted to CS-0289 or...Rayne as she knew her mother called her, there was no way in hell she was attracted to her. The woman looked as if she clawed her way out of hell with a grin on her face while being on fire. She ran a hand through her hair as she approached her office and saw most of the food gone, Amelia must’ve doled it out but she saw the bags of candy and her own stuff sitting neatly on the desk. She saw the scientist kitty sitting by her computer with a post-it note in between the front paws of the cat that said ‘Sorry for the attitude’ written on it in neat cursive with A and a heart next to it.

She gathered the five bags of candy for the CS-0312, took the paper off the plushie before pocketing it, and made her way out of the office. She walked down the hallway holding the bags as she watched her co-workers running around either to get to their specimens or to share their findings with their friends. She passed by Amelia’s office and heard shouting from inside, she came to a stop and looked at her watch. She released a huff, she had about fifteen minutes before she had to get to the lab and meet up with Leon. “Son of a bitch.” she swore.

Asena didn’t bother knocking, she just opened the door to Amelia’s office and stepped in but making sure they heard the door close. Both women jumped and saw the young woman standing there looking unimpressed. “Asena! Were you checked?!”

“The doctor said CS two eighty-nine has no physical side effects.”

“You made direct eye contact with Rayne!” Juniper snapped.

“I did and she sounded like she was gonna eat you if you didn’t bring me back.” she responded making 

Juniper groaned and made a face that meant she was uneasy or unsure about something. “I probably shouldn’t have left Rayne in an enraged state with just the underlings.”

Amelia waved a hand. “They’ll survive but I didn’t expect you to come in and start yelling at me.”

“Every woman that goes into Rayne’s observation lab NEEDS to be screened! You know this and you just send my daughter in! You know lesbian woman are more at risk of being manipulated than say a straight woman or even a bisexual woman!” spat out Juniper. “You have been dating me for twenty years and you decide to throw my daughter to a fucking hell wolf?!”

Asena blinked several times in surprise. A hell wolf? “You were there, do you think I’d truly send your daughter to Rayne if you weren’t there?” hissed Amelia. “I didn’t expect Rayne to see her, hell for all I knew, Rayne could’ve been involved with her writing. You’re smart, use your brain!”

“Moms, stop fighting.” drawled Asena. She rarely referred to Amelia as ‘mom’ unless they both started fighting because it was easier. They both went quiet and looked at her. “It happened. Fuck and make up.”

“Asena Jacqueline!”

The younger auburn haired woman reached into her pocket and pulled out the stuffed toy making the two look. “I got this for you.” she stated, holding it to Juniper and watched her mother take it. “I would’ve gotten you one, Amelia but I wasn’t sure if that was the sort of thing you’d want or not…”

“It’s fine.” answered Amelia with a small smile. She looked at her watch and flinched. “You need to go feed the three twenty-ones.”

Asena looked at her own watch and clicked her tongue before kissing her mother on the cheek and doing the same to Amelia than leaving the office, letting it shut behind her as she ran to the observation lab of CS-0321.

Dr. Leon Thompson was looking through papers on his clipboard as he patiently awaited his boss to arrive. Asena was rarely late but knew if she was, it most likely had to deal with either Juniper or Amelia. There were some happy chirping noises and he raised his head to look through the glass window into the room, it was dull compared to Rayne’s room or any of the other human creatures they facility had. The floor was white tiles, the wall a grey-ish color, and there was what looked like a handmade hut in one of the corners, made from the leaves of the trees in the area, and a few toys that were either intentionally made for cats or dogs. He saw several black furry like balls move across the floor, chirping happily just before the door opened and Asena walked in.

“Ah, that explains why they were getting excited.” he chuckled, making her look at him weird. “They sensed you coming.”

“That or they sensed their sugar.” she responded as she set the bags on the desk she worked at.

She shifted her ponytail over her shoulder and grabbed a steel bowl off the counter top they had, it sitting near their microwave and coffee pot, and stabbed the bag with a pair of scissors to get it open. She poured a good majority into the bowl before walking over to the door with Leon. “I wanted to show you something.” he said, sounding almost giddy. She hummed as she stepped in with him and the door shut behind them. “Bob.” One of the balls jumped and Asena realized what he had done. “Emily.” Another one jumped.

“You know we’re not supposed to name them, Leon.” she sighed, making him chuckle.

“And yet your mother calls two eighty-nine by her name.”

Fuck, yeah that was true. Almost everyone knew that Juniper called CS-289 by her name even if they didn’t know what her name was. She just grabbed one of the candies and tossed it at his face, it bouncing off his cheek. She clicked her tongue and moved her right hand as she snapped her fingers, indicating she wanted them to move to where she wanted. The scientific term was they were CS-321 but too Asena and those that worked with them, they were coal sprites. Getting them was actually Asena’s first time in the field, she and a few other scientists went with a security/capture team to West Virginia for several specimens. Asena was going for the multiple CS-321 that had caused a cave in while the other scientists were getting their own things, one of which was CS-349, a fucking Wendigo.

The Coal Sprites bonded with the humans they spent their time with but also lived on sugar. They were unsure if they bonded with any of the coal miners but when scared, they released what could be described as a cloud of coal dust, so pitch black that it was hard to see through it. One of them had been found by one of the miners and picked up but it panicked, released its defense mechanism and something occured that caused the mine to cave in and kill about four miners while injuring 10. Given how they acted, Asena and others realized that the people they killed hadn’t been on purpose and purely just an accident.

She watched as they all did what they were supposed to and she grabbed a handful of the candy, letting it fall from her hand and bounce off the tiles of the floor. The coal sprites going after them and picking them up with what tiny little arms that they had. “How did you even figure out their gender?” she asked, making Leon look at her.

“Ah, I didn’t? I just read names and they got excited with certain names and so...that’s their names.”

Grabbing another handful and dropping it, she looked at Leon. “And you’re telling me, one of them got excited with the name...Bob?”

Bob the coal sprite chirped happily before munching on the candy with their tiny little fangs. They were so cute but they had really sharp and deadly teeth, it was terrifying in a way but they all loved the sprites. “Apparently so.” Leon stated motioning towards the sprite.

Rolling her eyes playfully, she took one more handful and dropped it for the sprites before the two left the room. She sat the bowl down on the desk and popped two into her mouth, using her tongue to push them into her left cheek. “We need to eventually get a photo for the files of their teeth. We never did it, weirdly enough. I think we didn’t bother because they’re safe.”

“Are you gonna put your fingers in one’s mouth? I’m sure as shit not.”

Asena rubbed her head and sat down in her chair, sucking at the candy a bit. “Get the calmest sprite.” she spoke, making Leon and others look at her. “It wasn’t a suggestion, I mean actually get the calmest sprite.”

Leon motioned for one of the others to do so, most likely an intern. She tossed a third candy into her mouth and tucked it into her left cheek like the others. The man came back holding a coal sprite in his hands and she gently took him, as if she was taking a baby animal from him. “Should I get the camera?” asked the man, he was an intern because a scientist would know that.

“Please.” she spoke as she sat the sprite on the desk, moving anything of importance into the desks in case it’s defense mechanism acted up. She tapped her index finger on the sprite’s head and saw the large eyes look up at her, she pointed at her own mouth and opened her mouth as if trying to show the sprite what to do. If the sprite could look confused, it would.

A piece of candy bounced off her cheek and she laughed. “I think it thought you wanted candy.” chuckled Leon.

“No, no.” she spoke gently. “I want you…” she pointed at the creature. “To open your mouth.” She opened her mouth and the creature seemed to understand after a moment of thinking. It opened its mouth and bared its fangs. She gently used her index finger and thumb on her left hand to keep the hand open and shifted so the intern could take a photo.

However the camera's flash was on and thankfully the sprite didn’t release a cloud of coal dust from being startled by it but it did however...clamp down on Asena’s finger and some of her hand. The woman biting back a cry of pain as sharp little teeth punctured her skin, her jaw clenched and she heard the crunching of her teeth breaking the candy in her mouth. Leon grabbed a piece of candy and tapped it against the table to get it’s attention and the sprite released her finger in favor of the candy. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’m bleeding…” she sighed. “I’m going to the medbay and you…” she pointed at the intern who jumped. “We don’t use the flash. Okay? Keep that in mind.”

He nodded just before the young woman grabbed a handful of candy before leaving the lab, the door shutting behind her. She was almost positive from the tests they did that the coal sprites’ bite wouldn’t harm her in any other way then draw blood but it was procedure, if a specimen hurts you then you need to report to the medbay. She opened the door and saw the doctor from earlier sitting at his desk only for him to look up.

“What now?” he asked, almost sighing.

“Three twenty-one bit me. You know its procedure to come and get it looked at.”

“Does three twenty-one have any venom or anything?” 

She shook her head as he stood up. “After two eighty-nine bit one of the scientists and killed him, we tested the three twenty-ones.” She remembered that night, her mother coming home upset, more mad then sad. One of the scientists, when transporting Rayne, had insulted her intelligence and when she proved him wrong by answering the questions he asked in order to make her seem dumb, he proceeded to insult her and she bit him. That normally wouldn’t be a problem but he would die an hour after being bit and Juniper has been debating whether or not to get Rayne tested for some sort of venom.

The wound was looked at, cleaned and dressed before she was allowed to leave the medbay. The lights flickered a little and she looked up at the light when two armed guards walked around the corner and she saw the tall, black haired woman following behind them. Juniper followed with two other armed guards and saw Asena standing by the door she had closed upon exiting. She moved by quickly and pressed Asena back as Rayne looked towards them. Her long black hair hanging down around her face as per usual, her body glad in black clothing that hugged her curves.

“What are you doing?” Asena asked as Juniper watched as Rayne continued on by but her red eyes lingered on the young woman until she was out of sight.

“Rayne is on her way to get her blood tested.”

“She keeps...watching me.”

Juniper sighed and rubbed at her head. “Yes, she does.”

She looked at her mother before moving to the hallway they led Rayne down. “Do you have anyone to draw her blood?”

“No.” She saw Asena look at her before shaking her head. “No, Asena. No.” Her daughter just tilted her head. Juniper rubbed at her face, knowing full well that Rayne might behave better if Asena was with them and the woman had asked Juniper if she could talk to Asena. “Fine, fine! Come on.” She grabbed her wrist and led her down the hallway.

Rayne was sitting in a seat, straps being secured around her biceps and one across her chest as she looked around. Juniper walked in and the dark haired woman smiled as Asena followed her mother in. She sat up further in her seat as Juniper explained to the others that instead of pulling someone else in, Asena was qualified to draw blood. The young woman grabbed some plastic gloves and slid them on, carefully putting the one over her bandaged hand.

Red eyed watched her hands rather than her face. “What happened?” she asked, making Asena look at her.

“One of the three twenty-ones bit me. It got frightened as we were taking pictures of it’s teeth.” she answered before moving her hair over her shoulder so it was out of the way. She took the tools from them and looked at the vials they were having her use. They were bigger than the ones they used for the three twenty-ones but Rayne was human sized while the coal sprites were about the size of her palm.

She sat down on a stool and rolled it towards Rayne before stopping in front of her, they didn’t bother strapping Rayne’s legs so the first thing Asena realized was that she sat with her right leg crossed over her leg. She laid the items down onto a small table that was set up beside the chair. “Your name is Asena?” inquired the woman shaped creature. Asena hummed in acknowledgement as she nodded, grabbing the rubber tie to secure around Rayne’s left bicep. She tapped Rayne’s fist and the woman made a fist and unclenched it a couple of times before holding it in a fist. “That means she-wolf.”

“It does.” She pressed her index and middle finger to the middle of Rayne’s arm, where her arm bent. “Mother wanted a unique name.”

She put the needle and tube into Rayne’s arm and she didn’t know what scared her most; that Rayne didn’t even flinch or the fingertips that were skirting along the underside of her right breast. She pushed a vial to the other end and drew about four vials of blood, each one labeled by her mother who stood behind her. Having to lean forward was a mistake she should’ve tried to avoid cause she felt the hand move and take her breast in it. She quickly snatched up Rayne’s wrist and forced it back, her eyes glaring at the older woman. 

“What?” she innocently asked.

“You don’t just grope me.” Asena hissed stepping back and pulling her gloves off. “If you want me to like you, which I’m sure you do, don’t do that.”

Rayne remained quiet to the point Juniper was worried she was getting angry. “I...understand.” That caused all of the scientists other than Asena to look at CS-289 in surprise. “Juniper.” She tilted her head to the side making the woman huff, mostly because she’d prefer Dr. Marlowe but Rayne didn’t care. “May your daughter come visit me sometimes?”

Juniper looked at Asena, her back facing Rayne as she gave her mother a small smile. There was that underlying fear that Rayne would latch onto Asena like all of those other women she hurt but she knew her daughter, she wouldn’t let it get that far. While she might not have been cleared by the psychologists, she knew her daughter had a strong willpower. “We’ll discuss it later. Don’t you think I forgot your outburst when you saw her.”

The red eyed woman tssked in annoyance and saw Asena shift the bandages on her hand before signing a clipboard that had been held out too her. “May I see your hand?”

That made everyone look at her and Asena looked at her mother, as if asking for permission. “Go ahead I suppose.”

She held her hand out as one of the doctors undid Rayne’s right hand and she grasped the bandaged hand gently in her hand. She pushed her thumb under the bandages and pushed it up, the tip of her tongue coming out and Juniper knit her brows together before seeing the look on her daughter’s face that read she was either surprise, aroused, or both as she saw the three foot long tongue escape her mouth and the tip dragged across the bite wound making a sharp inhale leave the 25 year old. She dragged the tongue across the small cuts that had stopped bleeding but were still raw nonetheless. Rayne shifted the younger woman’s hand in her as she gently cradled it in her hand before slipping her tongue under her hand and dragging her tongue across the palm where the three twenty-one had clamped down. Asena quickly slipped her hand from Rayne’s and she saw the dumbfounded look on the other worldly woman’s face.

She flexed her fingers a couple times, the light annoying pain that the wounds had was gone but she felt nothing actually. “She…” Asena pushed one of her nails into her skin to the point of what should’ve been painful but she felt nothing. “She numbed it?”

Juniper grabbed Asena’s hand and looked at the slightly irritated skin, choosing to ignore the wetness that resided on her daughter’s hand from 289’s tongue. “You have a numbing agent in your saliva?” Rayne just blinked at her and said nothing. “Okay so now she’s not talking to me, we’re back to square one.”

“You have a numbing agent in your saliva?” repeated Asena and Rayne nodded. Juniper rose her hand in defeat and stepped away.

“The way she’s acting, I’m going to have to talk to Dr. Lycan about getting you screened.” sighed the older woman.

That made Asena look at her mother as a clawed hand reached out but Asena was just out of Rayne’s reach, it didn’t stop her from dragging the tips of her claws down the woman’s top. “Mom, I have enough.”

“You have the coal sprites, the wendigo, that mermaid like lady and whatever the other thing is.”

The other thing? Her mother was with her when she caught the Five-eleven.If she had to describe it, she would in the way that Leon did; if a Chupacabera had sex with a mutated coyote...whatever a mutated coyote looked like. “Yeah and all four of them are enough work for one day.”

“You work for five hours a day.” That made her daughter glare at her mostly because she was called out. “I’ll worry about it later, tell Rayne goodbye and go finish up your work.”

The young woman nodded and looked at Rayne as she covered the irritated cuts with the bandages, thankful for the numbing agent. “Goodbye Rayne.” she spoke as Rayne nodded, remaining quiet.

Juniper walked out with her and shut the door. “What was that?” Her daughter didn’t even need to voice her confusion, her expression was enough. “You have no issue when being given extra work…”

“She’s beautiful.” interrupted Asena. “She’s beautiful, deadly, and could have anyone else but she…”

“She’s attracted to you.” finished her mother. “Why wouldn’t she be? You’re beautiful.”

“You said…”

Juniper grabbed her daughter’s face and looked at her with a sigh. “I know what I’ve told you. It’s just she tells you things she’s never told me or any of my underlings. I asked her a question that she ignored but once you repeated it, she answered.”

Asena lightly pushed her thumb under her bandages and rubbed the pad of her thumb against where Rayne had licked on her palm. “Okay, okay…”

“I’ll talk to Amelia soon and we’ll have you screened tomorrow.” She spoke just before the door opened to show the scientists that accompanied Juniper and the security guards, Rayne was standing up in front of the chair now. “Go.” Without question, Asena turned and left to head and see if she needed to do anymore work for the day or if she could clock out.

She lucked out, the testing that they were going to do on the Wendigo had to be pushed back to tomorrow cause apparently one of the scientists threw up on someone and ultimately it was decided to wait. So she returned to her apartment, shutting the door and unlocking the door that connected to her mother and Amelia’s apartment since she knew her mother would want to come in once she was done with work. She, Juniper, and Amelia were some of the few scientists that lived at the OWCO, there were at least another hundred or so but she wasn’t sure about the right number. She took a shower, washing her hair and changing into a fresh pair of pajamas before pressing her thumb against the bite wound which was still numb...exactly how long did the numbing agent last? Could Rayne control the numbing agent?

Shaking her head, she opened her balcony door right beside her desk and booted her laptop up. She unpacked the things she bought while out and set her rock candy up beside her laptop before making a cup of coffee. Asena gathered her hair up and tied it back before grabbing her cup of coffee to then move towards her desk and sat down. She opened up the OWCO database and asked for permission to read the files on 289, she just needed to wait a little bit for permission. As she waited, she went through the emails that Leon had sent her as well as others she worked with about the other creatures they worked on.

The door beside her as the permission for Rayne’s files was approved, she tilted her head and looked at her mother. “What’s up?” she asked as she clicked open the file.

“Amelia said you have to go to screening at eight in the morning.”

“Mm…” she hummed as she clicked through photos of Rayne before scrolling through some information. She tilted her head as she saw Juniper move towards her kitchen and opened her fridge. “Can I help you?”

“Do you have any actual food in here? Your fridge is just filled with soda and juice.” Juniper closed the door and opened the freezer door before grunting. “And you have TV dinners.”

Asena rolled her eyes and clicked open one of Rayne’s photos to stare at her. An amused look on the woman’s face as a photo was taken of her through the window that separated her room and the main lab. “I’ll get food tomorrow.”

“We’ll get food tonight. Put on pants.”

Rubbing at her face, she stood up from her chair and huffed at her mother. She saw her mother not budging, her mother wasn’t going to let this go. She held her hands up in defeat and walked away to her room to put on some clothes; a Gemini t-shirt and black jeans with some boots, there was no need to be professional if she was going shopping.

“You are aware that I am an adult right?” she asked from the edge of her bed as she was tying her boots.

Juniper hummed as she looked at one of the case files that Asena had on her counter, mostly from reading it over while eating breakfast that morning. “How is...what’s it’s name? The mermaid chick?”

“Arlete isn’t really a mermaid chick.” she stated as she walked out of her room. “I mean we often compare her to a mermaid because she’s scaly and can breathe underwater.” She took the file from her mother, Arlete’s (CS-2123) file to be exact. “Plus I’m not even her head doctor, I just get Doctor Hopper the live squids she likes to eat.” Juniper motioned towards the file. “Doc Hopper has been...thinking of recommending me to become head of a few of his projects.”

“A recommendation?” she teased. “He must think very highly of you.”

“He…” she huffed in annoyance. “He claims I am just like my mother. Intelligent and stubborn. His words not mine.”

Juniper rolled her eyes. “Obviously he’s never met Amelia.”

Shaking her head, she motioned for Juniper to leave before following her mother out of the apartment. She shut the door and locked it before the two women began making their way towards the train to head into town. Juniper didn’t take her straight to the train but instead stopped at the lab to ensure that the current doctor in her place was up to date about everything. She was standing by the door as Juniper was snapping at the doctor cause he seemed to insult Rayne. Asena ran a hand through her hair to push it aside when she heard rapid tapping on the window and peered over her mother’s shoulder to see Rayne looking directly at her. She inhaled deeply and looked away as Rayne pouted. 

Without even needing to look at Rayne, Juniper pointed at her. “Stop with the pouting. She cannot interact with you until she’s been screened.”

“She’s going to be screened?!” asked the dark woman as a large smile grew on her face, her fangs showing.

“Wait what?” asked the doctor. “She’s going to be a part of this?! Is she even smart enough to comprehend what two eighty-nine is or has the witch already manipulated her?”

Had they not been in the lab, perhaps Doctor Jonathan Shaw would’ve heard Juniper’s growl upon hearing the way he addressed her daughter but a deep, rumbling growl overpowered her own as Rayne glared directly at him. “The only time I agree with her.” snapped Juniper pointing at the dark haired woman.

Glaring, the doctor slammed his clipboard down. “Doctor Lycan will hear about this.”

Asena snorted and quickly covered it up by clearing her throat and looking aside as she pursed her lips. “Good luck with that.” grinned Juniper. He made his way out of the door, avoiding Asena. “Oh and Doctor Shaw!” He stopped and looked at Juniper. “You’re off the team.”

“Excuse me?!”

“You insulted my intelligence.” He looked confused. “She has my IQ, shitbird! You calling her not smart enough is calling me not smart enough and I’m ninety-nine percent sure I sign for your hours on my team to get paid.”

“Mama…” tried Asena as she pinched the bridge of her nose. If there was one thing a great majority of people in the facility knew it was that you didn’t insult Asena’s intelligence in front of either Juniper or Amelia. “Dude, you just need to shut up while you’re at it.”

Jonathan growled and attempted to go at her but a loud growl came from the room as the lights began to flicker on and off. It caused him to come to a stop and look around before laying eyes on Rayne, the red irises and whites of her eyes completely gone and covered with an inky black color. “U-Um...Doctor M-Marlowe?” he pointed, making Juniper look as Rayne pulled her lips back as her fangs were bared, the growl that came from her was louder and more distorted.

“Rayne...Rayne?”

“Get him out of here before I slaughter him!” roared the otherworldly woman.

Juniper looked at the man and made a motion, this time he didn’t argue it and actually ran. Asena heard several of the doctors talking, mostly freaked out because from what she could gather; Rayne’s eyes had never done that before. Going against what she knew she shouldn’t do, she walked into the lab and set her purse down. “Rayne.” she said tapping the window, the dark haired woman stopped baring her teeth and if she was looking at Asena, she had no idea. “Stop.”

The inky blackness melted away and Rayne was staring directly at Asena. The woman’s brows knitted together as she saw the red haired woman staring at her. “He was going to touch you.” she managed as her index claw rested against the tempered glass, resting where he had been previously standing.

“And exactly how did you plan on slaughtering him?” Rayne said nothing, unable to answer the question since she knew there was no way of getting out of her room without Juniper.

The woman opened her mouth but shut it after a second. She looked at Juniper and cleared her throat. “I don’t like him.” she stated.

Juniper cleared her throat and grabbed Asena’s shoulders, turning her to guide her out of the lab before turning to face the black clad woman. “I’m aware you don’t like him but I cannot let someone go because he annoys you. I can however let go of someone when it involves insulting my daughter and doing what I was assuming was going to be an assault against her if you didn’t intervene. He will go to Dr. Lycan, she will call me to her office later tonight, I will explain the situation and if he’s lucky, he’ll still have a job. He just won’t be working for me anymore.” Juniper looked at her watch before backing up and putting one of the other higher up scientists in charge.

Shutting the door behind her, the older woman looked at her daughter and released a small huff. “You know he hates me.” whispered Asena. “This will just add fuel to the fire.”

“Amelia will handle Shaw, go.” she motioned, her daughter moving to head towards the main entrance of the building towards the train station.

Thankfully they got it just before the doors closed, the train filled with those that lived in town or were just going there for their break. The mother and daughter chose to stand, especially when one of their pregnant co-workers needed a seat and Asena wasn’t going to make her stand; she was close to her due date and knew her feet were killing her. Since the sun was close to setting, the town’s lights were starting to turn on and stores’ neon lights came more to life than they looked during the day. Asena could see the town from her apartment’s windows but no matter where she saw the town, it looked beautiful and almost serene during night. What would the townsfolk think if they learned the OWCO, what they believed to be some pharmaceutical company, was actually holding otherworldly creatures that, if let loose, could potentially kill everyone? In all honesty, she didn’t want to think about that since she knew so many good people that lived there, like Martha and Pete.

“Stop overthinking.” whispered her mother as she saw one of her daughter’s telltale signs, lazily scratching at her right collarbone with a blank look in her eyes. Asena said nothing but let her hand fall away from her collarbone.

The train came to a stop and both doors opened, allowing those on it to file out and to allow those waiting for it to get on afterwards. The two women made their way down the stairs before stepping out into the town to see the employees all go their own ways and merge into the townsfolk that were walking to their own destinations. The destination they went too was the small grocery store she had visited earlier in the day to get a few things to eat but nothing of actual substance that could qualify as dinner.

While Asena attempted to grab a basket, her mother pushed it out of her hands and grabbed a carriage. So they’d be carrying a bit up to the facility unless they ran into some other employees that were willing to help. “Mama.” her mother hummed. “Can I get Rayne some more pomegranates?”

Juniper looked at the 25 year old and saw the look on her daughter’s face, a thoughtful look. “I think she’d appreciate that. You can give them to her tomorrow after your screening.”

The young woman moved over to where the fresh fruit was and found three ripe pomegranates before placing them into the plastic bag as her mother grabbed several things of fruit such as bagged fruit and even a few cups of pomegranate seeds. She set the bag of pomegranates in the cart and followed her mother around, occasionally giving her a weird look when her mother grabbed stuff she didn’t want crowding her fridge. She was sure it was the motherly instinct that caused Juniper to want to go grocery shopping for Asena’s fridge but she knew that like herself, Juniper went to the cafeteria to grab food made by their cooks. They would spend twenty minutes getting food before Juniper swiped her credit card in the machine and Asena took half of the bags. She followed her mother out of the store when she looked up at OWCO, she had never really looked at it at night.

“Rayne’s room overlooks the town?” she asked, making Juniper nod as she looked up at the building as well. “Did she ask for that or…?”

The older redhead shook her head and began walking up the stairs to the station. “You are aware that our specimens do not choose the location of their living quarters. Those able to communicate only have a say in how it’s decorated but if Rayne was displeased with the view, she has never once said so.” She looked to the side and saw the look on her daughter’s face. “Speak.”

“Why does she hate Dr. Shaw?”

“He insults her intelligence and you, apparently. I had the sneaking suspicion but we know her. She is, as her paperwork suggests, manipulative. So there was no way I could be certain if what she was saying about him insulting you was true. She knew nothing about you other than you were the other Dr. Marlowe.” spoke Juniper as the two walked towards one of the benches to await the arrival of the train to take them back up to the facility. “She figured it out when Shaw referred to you as Marlowe’s fucking spawn.”

Asena hummed and pulled her phone out of her purse. A few texts from Leon about the sprites but that was about it. “Why would she be defensive of me before she even knew me?” Her mother didn’t answer and instead looked down at the bags between her feet. “You don’t know.”

“I don’t know.” the older woman whispered in response.

Perhaps Juniper did know but perhaps she was keeping it too herself. Thinking back on it, she remembered before her pregnancy that Rayne used to scream that the woman they found nearly dead when capturing the otherworldly woman, was her soulmate but after Juniper’s pregnancy; her demeanor changed. It was because of the woman that Juniper knew she was pregnant, claiming she wanted to meet the Little Juniper when she was born randomly one day when she was trying to get answers out of her. The rage that happened when someone got angry and shoved a cart into a heavily pregnant Juniper’s stomach and at first the older woman believed that perhaps it was because she cared for pregnant women and didn’t want the child hurt but when thinking back on it now, perhaps it was because she’d come to care for a girl Juniper would try her hardest to keep away from the woman.

Asena looked at her mother and smiled as the older redhead knit her brows together in thought. “Train’s coming.” the older woman finally spoke, not needing to look at it but she could hear it.

The two women got on the train and thankfully one of the night time interns, Asena believed her name was Michelle but she wasn’t 100% certain, was more than willing to help both doctors get the groceries to Asena’s door before running off to do her job. Juniper helped her put her clothes away while cooking something quick for Asena to eat before leaving the young woman alone in her apartment. She spent the next several hours, while eating her dinner, studying Rayne’s profile as well as listening to interviews that her mother had tried to conduct but got literally nothing other than maybe a migraine out of the ordeal. Ultimately, she fell asleep while listening to the interviews on her tablet, which was seated on her nightstand.

Her alarm went off around six thirty in the morning and woke her up out of her somewhat deep sleep. The young woman inhaled sharply and looked at the ceiling before rolling her head to the side and seeing that her tablet had shut itself off, most likely due to the battery dying in the night. Rubbing her face, she stood up and pushed her blanket off as she stared out the windows in her bedroom to see the sun rising, the town cast in a hue or pinks and oranges. Her eyes slowly fell closed for a minute before she forced them open. “Coffee.” she muttered as she stood up from her bed and grabbed her tablet to get it too it’s charge while pulling her phone off it’s own charger.

Entering her kitchen, she quickly plugged the charger into her tablet and made her way to her coffee pot. She opened the top and poured some water into the spot where it was required and put one singular tiny container of coffee into its spot before closing it. She grabbed a coffee cup from her cabinet and sat it down before moving to her fridge, managing to hit the start button on the way. She opened the fridge and looked at what they had purchased, trying to figure out what she’d want for breakfast, ultimately she settled on making herself a bowl of fruit. She peeled and cut up two oranges and two apples before tossing the fruit into a bowl before grabbing some of the grapes and then her bottle of honey to drizzle it onto her food.

Grabbing her coffee, she walked over to her desk and set her breakfast down. She woke her computer up and saw an awaiting email from Leon. She sipped her coffee as she opened it and knit her brows together at the subject.

_Subject: Wendigo_

_Sena,  
One of the interns made a suggestion to me, have we tested Wendigo's intelligence? I mean there’s the myth that they’re smart but that’s in the myth. We’ve seen it hunt, we’ve been it track then trap some of the smaller animals we give it but is that intelligence or instinct? I was wondering if we could test it today? At like 10am? I’m only asking for 10 cause I gotta pick up my sister from school earlier today for her doc appointment at 11:30. Her asthma has been acting up again and the parents are getting nervous but are unable to get out of work earlier so...big bro to the rescue?_

_Lemme know please._

_Love,  
Your favorite pain in the ass_

Asena rubbed at her face and pinched the bridge of her nose as she squeezed her eyes shut. Amelia would have words if she for some reason saw the way Leon referred to himself and could almost hear her voice in her head claiming that Leon was being unprofessional. Running a hand through her snarled hair, growling as she caught a snarl, she clicked reply.

_Pain in the ass,  
I swear to fuck if Amelia sees this, I am not responsible for the lecture you are given. Yeah it’s fine, we can do it at 10, I’ve got screening at 8 and will probably be in 289’s lab/cell around 8:30-8:45 so if asked, you get to explain to Rayne why I left her so early. It’s cool, just get the interns and other scientists on board, I’ll see you at 10._

_Love,  
Your boss who will kick you in your ass._

She rubbed at her face and leaned back in her chair as she clicked open a random video of Rayne being interviewed and ate her breakfast. There were mostly audio interviews of Rayne, of which she fell asleep listening too, but there were the occasional video interviews that Juniper had recorded but Rayne acted the same way she did in the audio ones; she didn’t like answering Juniper’s questions and would often answer a question with a question or comment on something that had nothing to do with the question. No wonder her mother kept a bottle of migraine pills in her top desk drawer. Sucking her fork off, she paused the feed on Rayne looking at the camera with a cocky smirk. Rayne wasn’t stupid, she was anything BUT, she knew the affect she had on Juniper and she loved it.

Looking at the clock, she needed to get ready for work. She quickly showered, after brushing her snarled hair, and dressed herself in a pair of black jeans, a tanktop under her blue and black plaid top, and her favorite pair of heels; black booted heels with red roses going along the sides of it. Drying then brushing her hair, she looked at herself in the mirror as she debated whether or not to braid it. When she braided her own hair, it wasn’t as neat and perfect as she’d like it so she’d leave that to her mother or self-proclaimed step-mother; even if Amelia hadn’t married Juniper, she was still in a way Asena’s other mother. She applied her eyeliner, some light grey eyeshadow and dark red lipstick, her eyeshadow depended on what she was going for each day but she never did anything bright, always dark colors.

Clipping her watch on, she looked at it and saw that she needed to get to Amelia’s office. Grabbing her purse, she unplugged her tablet and slid it in before grabbing her phone and leaving her home; the door clicking shut behind her and locking.

Juniper had her feet kicked up on Amelia’s desk as she had her head tilted back, her eyes shut and her hands in the pockets of her lab coat. “Can you get your feet off my desk?” huffed the other woman.

“Nah.”

Amelia scrunched her face up in disdain, she hated when Juniper put her feet on her desk. She opened her mouth to say something that would’ve most likely been unpleasant but Asena opened the door and stepped in. “Am I late?” she asked.

“No. You’re on time. Get your mother’s feet off my desk.”

Asena scrunched her face up in the same way Amelia did before smacking at her mother’s right ankle. “See if I didn’t have sex with some guy, I’d swear she was your kid.” huffed Juniper as she lowered her feet.

“Gross.” both women spoke together.

Juniper rolled her eyes and leaned onto her right arm as she looked at Asena. “You don’t really need screening, we know you. We just gotta pretend.”

“Your breaking protocol because of me. You know I hate favoritism.” sighed the 25 year old. “I mean unless mom is yelling at Dr. Shaw cause he’s an asshole…”

The two women chuckled and Amelia leaned back in her chair. “You’ve faced Rayne head on...twice now? Three if you count for when she first saw you, You would’ve shown symptoms of manipulation by now. Trust me, we know what those symptoms are. You’re not forcing your way into the lab to be near her, you’re not attacking others if they so much as look at her, you didn’t let her touch you more inappropriately than she did when you were drawing blood.” Asena would’ve questioned how she knew that but she knew Juniper told her. “You’re not obsessing over her.”

“Well I mean…not in that way…” Amelia rose a brow at that statement. “I’m obsessing in a way that could be described as pure curiosity. Like ma said, she won’t tell her things that she has no problem telling me. Mom asks her a question, Rayne ignores it. I repeat the question and I get an answer. I’m fully aware that she could just be answering me because she’s attracted to me, but I know I could help mom learn what she’s been asking for as long as the facility has had her.”

The blonde tilted her head with a smile. “You have your mother’s curiosity.” Asena just chuckled and sat down in the chair beside Juniper.

Around quarter of nine, Amelia signed something saying that Asena was screened and qualified to work in 289’s observation lab but to be near her as well. She updated Asena’s information before the mother and daughter left the office to head to the lab but stopping by the younger woman’s apartment to get the pomegranates. The door hissed open for the two before they stepped in and Asena looked around the office as Juniper moved to her desk. Was she nervous? Yeah a little bit, but her mother and Amelia were so sure nothing would happen to her.

Juniper set her purse down and looked behind her to see the young woman clutching at the plastic bag. “Honey, that’s your desk.” she pointed at the desk that was beside her own but unlike how hers was pushed up against the wall, only the right side was against the wall so if she looked just over the computer she’d see her mother. “I’ll figure out your work schedule with Amelia.”

“I have a test in an hour.” Juniper rose a brow. “Leon wanted to test something with the wendigo and he’s gotta leave early to take his sister to a doctor appointment so we need to do the test early.”

“That’s fine. Just…” Juniper stopped mid sentence and looked into the room. She suspected that Rayne would be at the window all happy but the woman was at the desk she had positioned against the window that overlooked the town. “Is she okay?”

The intern she addressed looked as if he had been put on the spot. “W-What?”

“Did I stutter?”

He shook his head before clearing her throat. “She’s been there for the past three hours on her typewriter.”

Humming, Juniper looked at her daughter with a look of confusion. “Follow me.” Asena set her purse on the desk and followed her mother, the woman swiped her card and the door hissed open. The smells of different spices was the first thing that the young woman noticed, it was hard to pinpoint one given how many were mixed together. The room was cool but not overly cold, the island was always warm all year round so the air conditioner being on wasn’t a surprise but what did surprise the young woman was the lack of bright colors. It was black, dark reds, and even some dark purples but that was about all the color there was in the room. “Rayne.”

“Morning Juniper.” spoke the woman without turning.

Juniper crossed her eyes in annoyance before looking at Asena. “I passed my screening.” The woman stopped typing and sat straight up at the voice. The woman pushed her chair back and turned in her seat to see Asena standing there.

“She’s real?” she asked.

The older woman knit her brows together before pinching Asena’s arm making her hiss in pain and swat at her mother. “Yeah she’s real.”

Rayne stood and nearly knocked over her chair in the process given her level of excitement, a small snort leaving the red head. “I brought you pomegranates.” she spoke, holding them out towards the dark haired woman. The young woman saw the blood red eyes look down before looking up at Asena as if she didn’t believe that the red head was in front of her. She reached forward and gently took the bag in her hands, her fingers touching Asena’s while two of her claw-like nails lightly scraped at Asena’s skin as she took the bag. “She passed?”

“She passed.” answered Juniper. “As she said when she first spoke.”

Rayne snarled a little before moving to the island in her kitchen area. “Do you need to stay? I’m referring to you, Juniper. She can stay all she wants.”

Rolling her eyes, the older woman kissed her daughter’s cheek and left. Rayne opened the bag and withdrew the pomegranate before using her index claw to cut through the pomegranate skin before slipping her thumbs into the cut she made and ripping the fruit in half. A startled look on Asena’s face at the sight of a woman so easily ripping a fruit that she knew would require more than just one simple cut. “Do you like pomegranates?”

“Yes.” she responded as she looked around the room.

There was a large king or queen bed near the windows in the room, the blankets pure black with the sheets being a deep red, same goes for the pillows but there was a few plushy looking pillows, the desk had the typewriter and a few stacks of paper she either used already or hadn’t yet, there was a long dresser against the far wall with a mounted TV against it and what looked like a DVD player but she wasn’t 100% sure, the couch near it was a plush black couch with a fleece red blanket draped over it, and the kitchen was all dark grey or black tiles with appliances in matching colors and a dark mahogany table with four chairs. She didn’t see the bathroom but was almost sure that it was probably tiled in the same way that the kitchen was. She did notice that when Rayne opened her fridge, there were loads of fruits and what looked like bottles of wine.

“How old are you?” asked Asena, making Rayne look up at her briefly before putting the seeds into a bowl she got; plastic by the looks of it.

Humming, the dark haired woman put a handful of pomegranate seeds into her mouth. “How long ago was thirteen twenty-eight?” she inquired before biting down on the seeds, Asena hearing an audible crunch coming from the fruit in her mouth.

Had she been expecting that question? Blinking several times, she saw Rayne raise a brow; she wanted an answer. “Well it's twenty-one ten now so...um...seven hundred and eighty two years ago.”

The dark haired rose her brows as she scooped up more pomegranate seeds. “Jesus, I’m old.” she muttered.

“W-Wait. You were born in…”

“Thirteen twenty-eight.” She answered as she ran her hand over her mouth, Asena wondering if the seeds would’ve stained Rayne’s fingers had she not had that darkness that covered her fingers as if she rubbed them in charcoal, her tanned skin color peaking out in the creases of her fingers. “How old are you?”

Fuck, a question for a question. Alright, they could play that game. “Twenty-five.”

Rayne huffed a little as she looked to the side, towards the window and towards the town. “Really? Jesus…” Asena scrunched her face up in disdain. She wasn’t a religious woman but how many times did someone have to say God’s name? “Doesn’t feel like I've been here for twenty-six years. I remember when your mother got pregnant. She didn’t know and I suppose I spoiled that little bit of excitement she would’ve had but I wasn’t...friendly then.”

“Are you friendly now?”

Rayne snorted with laughter as she tilted her head as she ran her blood red eyes up and down Asena. “I’m not that much of a dick any more.”

“Yeah okay.” spoke Juniper’s voice over the intercom.

The 25 year old looked at her watch and saw Rayne follow her movement. “Sorry, I only have forty more minutes with you. We’re testing another creature at ten.”

“Of course.” the older woman sighed as she grabbed the bowl and moved to the table, pulling a chair out and sitting down. She crossed her legs and didn’t miss as Asena looked at them; they were clad in what looked like leggings. “Are you into women?”

The question alone caused a red color to rise in the young woman’s cheeks. “That obvious?”

“Mm...not really. Just heard that Shaw asshole call you...not so nice names and I wanted to throttle him the entire time. I didn’t miss the gaze you just gave my legs but…”

“I was just trying to figure out if they were leggings or jeans.” quickly answered Asena as if she was being accused of something.

“I believe you.” she responded as she tugged up the sleeves of the turtle neck she was wearing and picked up a few pomegranate seeds. “You can sit.”

The otherworldly woman saw the young woman’s gaze rise to the window as if silently asking permission before pulling the chair across from Rayne out and sitting in it. “Do you only wear black?”

The question caused the 782 year old woman to pause mid-chew, looking up at her curiously. “Black suits me. Suits my powers.” she answered before dropping more seeds into her mouth and sucking her fingers off. “Did your mother ever tell you about the time I nearly killed someone before you were born?” Blue eyes narrowed in skepticism. “Your mother inadvertently angered someone, this was right around the time she was about little over eight and a half months pregnant with you, and his reaction was to shove a medical cart into your mother’s stomach.”

Before Asena could react or Rayne could add anything else, the intercom clicked on. “Yeah and we learned we needed stronger doors that day.” spoke the older Dr. Marlowe as Asena chuckled.

The rest of the time was just Rayne making idle chit chat but Asena couldn’t get her to answer any more questions and perhaps that was because she wanted to see if Asena would react the same way her mother did and show exasperation but she never did. So when five of ten came around, she grabbed her purse and saw the woman look at her, she could almost see a form of sadness in her eyes knowing that she was leaving. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Dr. Lycan is sorting out my schedules so I can spend two hours here.” Without a word, the darker haired woman nodded and took Asena’s hand to kiss the top of it as if it was a lover doing it, the top of her hand being stained slightly by the pomegranate juice on the woman’s lips.

Juniper opened the door and Asena walked out, it hissing close behind her and the older red head looked at her daughter. “Good job. Now get to your test.” she spoke, kissing her forehead. Smiling, she grabbed her purse and left the lab to head to her own. 

The lab was filled with the usual scientists and Leon. The man, a few years older than Asena, was standing there in front of the window staring at the wendigo. It was male in appearance, looking gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones with its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets. Leon turned as he heard the door hiss open and saw Asena step in. “Heya boss.”

“You know I hate that.”

“Yup. I do.” he chuckled as she sat her purse down.

Asena tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear as she looked around. “Alright, so what did you have in mind? For the intelligence testing.”

The man snapped his fingers and gave her those lame finger guns before moving over to his desk. “Children toys but the kind where you gotta fit the shaped blocks into the right shaped hole. Random idea I had when watching videos on the internet last night.”

The 25 year old shrugged, good idea as any because she didn’t have one. Those that went in and out of the cell suited themselves up in what looked like riot gear with a tempered glass riot shield but as soon as that door opened, that’s when everything went terribly wrong. The wendigo had been laying in wait and the second that door opened, one of the men was pounced on from the side as the other was stabbed in the stomach with it’s claws on it’s right hand. Asena backed up as it crawled through the door and looked at everyone, Asena moved quickly and slammed her hand down on the red button that began to sound the alarm that told the facility that there was a breach. Everyone scattered through different doors, Leon got most of those near the door out of the main door before forcing it closed as Asena and one heavily pregnant scientist was forced into a side door given where the wendigo was.

Asena slammed the door shut as the wendigo slammed into it and she quickly turned the padlock. She backed up towards the woman, if she was right then her name was Doctor Elizabeth Dyer, and placed herself in front of her as she carefully looped an arm around Elizabeth’s stomach. Her heart was racing, the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own heart over the sound of the wendigo breaking it’s way into the room. The urge to throw up was prominent and she wasn’t even aware of the tears that slid down her cheeks as she stared at the slowly breaking door. The second the Wendigo got it’s arm through a hole it made, a scream ripped itself from the young woman’s throat as she pushed back against the woman in an effort to not only protect her but the unborn child.

In Juniper’s lab, Rayne’s head snapped up and her blood red eyes looked around as the alarm blared in the lab. Her own heart racing in what felt like anxiety but it wasn’t...her anxiety. “It’s not my anxiety.” she whispered. “Juniper!”

The older woman looked up to see Rayne coming to the window, a terrified look in her eyes. “It’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a breach.”

“Let me out!” she begged. “You need to let me out!” she twitched. “Please, please. You need to let me out!” Juniper just tilted her head curiously. “I’m feeling her anxiety! It’s Asena!”

That caused the 45 year old woman to stand straight up, knocking her chair over. “What do you mean?!”

“I mean I feel her anxiety! LET ME OUT!” she roared as the lights began flicking on and off rapidly. “It’s going to kill her!”

Could it have been a manipulation ploy? Sure but that didn’t stop Juniper from moving and hitting the button for the door to open, Rayne moving quickly as shadows began to swarm around her before she disappeared.

The wendigo walked towards them as Elizabeth slid down onto the floor, Asena following her but keeping herself in front of her. It’s claws swiped across Asena’s left shoulder making a scream of pain rip from her mouth, the muscles tearing deep to the point Asena was almost sure she could see some of the bone as blood poured out of the wound. Elizabeth looked up as the lights began to flicker rapidly as if there was faulty wiring. The wendigo rose onto its feet and was about to strike until a mass of shadows raced into the room and slammed into the creature, sending it into a wall away from the two women. Elizabeth put her hands over the gaping wound on the young woman’s shoulder as a sob came from her. 

The creature stood up as Rayne released a deep, rumbling growl as her teeth were bared, her eyes completely covered with that same inky blackness. It looked at Asena as blood stained the front of her shirt and went at the young woman making Rayne’s eyes widen before grabbing it’s leg and slamming it into the nearest wall then throwing it into the metal shelves that contained medical equipment, some of it clattering to the ground. The otherworldly woman growled in anger as it dared to rise to its feet, shadows forming around her before she screamed and shadow like tendrils shot from her body and impaled the creature. She threw it towards the cell before kicking it in, the wendigo slamming against the nearest tree as Rayne shut the door and it locked instantly upon closure.

Hearing the pained crying made the inky blackness melt away from Rayne’s eyes and she moved quickly to kneel in front of Asena as Elizabeth had her hands over the wound but blood seeped between her fingers. “I got it. Get her help.” spoke Rayne, the pregnant woman carefully rising to her feet as Rayne’s right hand went over the gaping wound. She lifted her hand to examine the wound before flinching at the sight of it, the wendigo’s claws had ripped through skin, layers of muscle and exposed some of the bone in her shoulder. She firmly gripped the wound, a cry of pain leaving the younger woman as a black mist began to form around Rayne’s hand and the woman slid her hand to the side a bit to see the woman’s muscle and everything else that had been ripped in the process stitching itself together. “I can’t heal it all the way but I can enough that it’s not life threatening…”

The woman released a sob as she pulled Rayne closer and clutched onto her, her face burying in her neck as she openly sobbed. “Thank you.” she managed through her sobs.

Wrapping her free arm around Asena, she gently stroked her hair as her right hand stayed clamped over Asena’s left shoulder. “You’re okay.” whispered the dark haired woman as she rested her head against the young woman’s, repeating the same phrase over and over again as Juniper ran in with the security team and medics. Rayne made a vow then there; nothing would ever hurt Asena and if someone or someone managed to do so, they’d be dealt with. She’d keep the woman protected no matter what.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry took me so long! Was struggling a little bit trying to get to where I wanted with this chapter! Anyways, hope you all enjoy!

It took a bit of coercing to get Rayne to let go of Asena after Juniper and the medics arrived with the security team in charge of handling the wendigo. The first guy to try and get Rayne off her was growled at and could’ve been hurt if Juniper hadn’t intervened; promising the woman that Asena would be fine and taken care of. Even with the otherworldly woman’s healing ability, she still needed stitches and possibly might need a transfusion given how much blood was on the front of her shirt. That was the first time the older redhead watched Rayne go back to her cell without arguing or fighting but she didn’t question it.

“How strong does someone have to be to throw around a wendigo?” asked Elizabeth as she was sitting on a bed in the medical area, her hand over her stomach as a doctor checked her vitals.

“Rayne’s powerful. It’s why she has a clearance level of five.” spoke Juniper from where Asena was resting in her own bed, her wound having been stitched up and bandaged but she had an IV attached to her and was sleeping, it was mostly for fluids now since her blood transfusion was over two hours ago. “So her tossing a wendigo around like it’s a rag doll isn’t a surprise.”

Elizabeth looked at the older woman and rubbed at her stomach, feeling her baby kick a little. “You work on two eighty-nine don’t you?” Juniper nodded. “Did you...purposely let her free?” Another nod. “Why? I thought she was dangerous?”

Sucking at her teeth, the woman leaned back in her chair and looked at her phone. “Cause she said it would kill Asena.” Groaning, she rubbed at her face and tilted her head back. “Fuck I have so much paperwork to fill out now. Not only did I contribute to a breach but Asena is in no way shape or form able to fill out the report about what happened.”

The pregnant woman chuckled and looked at Asena. “I can do the paperwork about the incident. I mean I was involved, don’t I…?”

“Usually it’s whoever is the head of the lab. I’d normally ask Leon, since it’s Asena’s second in command, but he managed to get everyone out that was near the door so he wasn’t present when everything happened.” Juniper pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fuck it, if you wanna write it up then do so, I’ll tell Dr. Lycan I gave the okay on it because nobody else can.” Elizabeth nodded and carefully slid off the bed to get some paper and a pen from the doctor. “Boy or girl?”

Elizabeth looked at Juniper before down at her belly. “Girl. I wanted a boy but I’m happy with what I’m getting. My husband said in a year or two we’ll try again for a boy.”

The older woman nodded before seeing Asena crack open her eyes and inhaled deeply before flinching. “Easy sweetie.” she whispered brushing hair out of her face. “You lost a lot of blood and the doctor thought it was best you get a transfusion.”

The 25 year old exhaled as she shifted and flinched again. “I saw...I saw my bone.” She managed before swallowing thickly. “Then Rayne…”

“Healed you. Surprisingly, we didn't know she could do that.” informed her mother.

Asena released a weak chuckle. “Keep learning more about her don’t we?” 

Juniper laughed at the statement when she heard the doors open and saw Amelia quickly walking in with a look of worriment on her face. The blonde kissed her girlfriend’s daughter’s forehead and smiled as she looked at her. “You’re okay?’

“I’m okay.” reassured the redhead.

Humming, she turned her attention to Juniper. “You released Rayne?” A nod. “What the hell, Juni?”

“Please, honey. I’m not in the mood for a lecture. Rayne beat the ever loving shit out of the wendigo and healed most of Asena’s wound.”

Amelia pursed her lips and pushed some of the young woman’s hair away from her face as the doctor came over with a can of ginger ale for her to sip on. “How bad was it?” The question was directed to the infirmary doctor, Kevin Banner.

He looked at her before moving to grab his tablet and pull up Asena’s chat. “When we found her, she had three deep cuts that required at most, ten stitches each but two eighty-nine told Dr. Marlowe that when she got to her, the middle cut had exposed Asena’s shoulder bone when the wendigo attacked her. I’m sorry to say that if two eighty-nine hadn’t been there, it’s possible that Asena’s recovery would be a lot worse than it would be and given how deep the cut was before two eighty-nine helped her, would’ve most likely required some surgery. She lost enough blood that she needed at maximum a two hour transfusion but that was taken care of when she got here and the wounds were stitched.” Kevin turned his attention to Juniper this time. “Ideally, she needs to rest for the next five to seven days. I don’t want her dealing with...what number is the wendigo?”

“Three forty-nine.” spoke Elizabeth before Asena could.

“I don’t want her dealing with three forty-nine until that wound of hers is healed. I will write her up a prescription for pain medication and an antibiotic ointment that I want her or someone to apply to her stitches daily.” He spoke as he grabbed a prescription pad and wrote down what he wanted them to get, yeah he could easily call it into the facility’s pharmacy but knew that Juniper and Asena occasionally took it into town. “She can leave when you’re ready. She doesn’t need a sling but when she showers, she is to take baths instead. I don’t want the shower beating down on her shoulder. However, if she thinks she needs a sling cause of how her arm is acting, send her back here.”

Asena just watched the three interact as she slowly sipped at her ginger ale through the straw that has been in her mouth since she got the drink. Her blue eyes moved from Kevin to the clock to see it was nearing 1:30 in the afternoon, she wondered if Leon was even here at the moment or in the city with his little sister Safia. Kevin moved over and undid the IV before putting a small piece of gauze with a bandaid over it. She carefully got herself out of the bed, mostly in case she was dizzy from the earlier blood loss, and looked down to see her favorite plaid shirt was not only damaged from the wendigo attack but stained.

“Hey.” spoke Elizabeth making Asena look at her. “Thank you.”

She gave a weak smile, mostly because she felt a little...weird? It was hard to explain. “No injuries?”

With a shake of her head, she gave a smile in return. “No, the baby's vitals were a tiny bit elevated but overall I’m fine. They thought I had some injuries but the blood that was on me wasn’t mine…” she trailed off.

Asena reached up and lightly dragged her fingers across the bandage on her shoulder. “I suppose it wouldn’t have been. I’ll see you later.” Elizabeth nodded and waved before returning her attention to the paper she was writing.

Both older women made sure that Asena managed to get to her apartment without any issues but she just seemed tired. She had her left arm tucked under her breasts and her left hand was gripping at the right side of her shirt, she was doing that to keep from moving her arm and aggravating her shoulder. As soon as she stepped foot into her apartment, she walked to the kitchen island and sat down in one of the seats as she used her right hand to unbutton her top.

“Can one of you please get me a tank top?” she asked, Amelia nodding and doing so before Juniper could. Instead, her mother helped her remove the shirt from her injured shoulder and shifted some of the bandages that looked bunched up from her laying in the infirmary bed. “Are we going into town?”

“Mm-hm. In a bit. I’m going to make you something to eat first.” answered Juniper, pressing a kiss to the back of the young woman’s head.

Amelia came out with a black tank top that had the Gemini logo on it and bunched it up. “Give me your bad arm first.” she ordered. Asena carefully moved her arm a bit for Amelia to slide her arm through the hole and then put it over her head, the young woman quickly pulling her right arm through the other hole. The blonde tugged the top down and smiled at her. “You didn’t specify which tank top so…”

“It’s fine, Amelia. I don’t usually wear tank tops unless I sleep, work out, or go to the beach so this is fine.” reassured the 25 year old.

The older woman nodded and sat beside her at the kitchen island as Juniper went through the fridge and cabinets before ultimately deciding that since she really didn’t want to cook and dirty Asena’s pots and pans, she’d make them all sandwiches. She set each plate down and quickly made some ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on them. “What’s on your mind?” asked Juniper as Asena poked the bread with her index finger.

“Can we see Rayne before we go?” Both older women knit their brows together at the question. “She...came to help me. I want her to know I’m okay.”

The two looked at one another before Juniper nodded. “Fine, we’ll stop by when we leave in a bit.” Asena smiled and nodded as she grabbed her sandwich and bit into it.

It took ten minutes to finish their sandwiches but it took twenty minutes for them to leave Asena’s apartment. Her mother got her purse for her and put it onto the 25 year old’s right shoulder before they left, the door locking behind them. Amelia kissing Asena’s forehead before giving Juniper a quick kiss and heading back to her office, as much as she loved the both of them, her work day wasn’t over yet.

In the 289’s lab, Rayne was staring out of the large window as she sat in front of her typewriter. Since she returned she had tried to put words to paper but she couldn’t, her mind was all over the place and she couldn’t focus long enough. The sound of the door hissing open was heard but she didn’t move, didn’t want to acknowledge it because she knew it was most likely one of the other scientists coming to attempt to ask questions of her. She looked down at the paper that was sticking out of the typewriter, the only thing she had managed to type was ‘Is Asena okay?’. Was she a little angry Juniper didn’t update her, yeah sure but she knew she couldn’t stay mad long because deep down she knew that the woman would stay by her daughter’s side until she was better and able to leave the infirmary.

She felt the presence behind her but chose to ignore it; she wasn’t in the mood. Then the hand touched her right shoulder before slipping down and wrapping itself around Rayne’s shoulders, this causing the otherworldly woman to knit her brows together and turn. She was half expecting to chew out a scientist and while she was greeted by a scientist, it was one that she wanted to see. “Asena.” she breathed standing up, knocking her chair back and the young woman grunting as the back of it smacked against her stomach. “Sorry. You’re okay?”

“I’m okay.” she chuckled as a hand gently rested over the visible bandages. “Thank you.”

What Asena did notice next was the thumb gently rubbing against the bandages. “Don’t thank me. Can I see? I’ll fix the bandages after.” The red head nodded at the question and watched as Rayne gently parted some of the layers to look under, the underside of the bottom layer of bandages was stained red with the young woman’s blood but she could see the three wounds were properly stitched up and the skin around the stitches red from irritation. Her mouth twitched a little as it took every inch of her being to keep her tongue in her mouth and not attempt to numb the area, instead she fixed the bandages and gently patted the shoulder.

The 25 year old gently took Rayne’s hand away with her right hand. “Mom’s taking me into town to get my medicine filled but I wanted to stop in and let you know I was okay but because I cannot work in the Wendigo’s lab until the doc clears me, mom has given me an extra hour here. So in total, I’ll be working in your lab for about three hours a day. More depending on if mom wants Dr. Thompson to cover most of my work until I’m better.”

“But...you’re being allowed to work on me?”

Licking her lips, Asena looked down to see that Rayne was still ever so gingerly holding onto Asena’s fingertips rather than letting her hand go. “Mom knows you’re not a threat to me.” Rayne nodded at the statement before feeling the softer fingertips leave her own and the redhead smile. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Biting at her own lower lip, one of her fang like canines showing in the process, Rayne nodded once more. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” she repeated, unable to think of something else to say.

Walking out of the room, the young woman locked the door behind her and over towards where her mother was waiting by the lab’s main entrance. “Not going to lie, I think it’s kinda hilarious you can render Rayne speechless at times.” Juniper spoke making Asena chuckle softly.

A scientist coming into the building held the door open for both women to leave, both of them saying their thanks before continuing on their way to the train. The older woman let out a noise of annoyance since the train wasn’t there when they arrived but they could see it making its way back up to the OWCO train station. Asena pulled out her phone to see text messages from Leon apologizing about not being able to get her out of the way when the Wendigo broke out and asking if she was okay. She’d never hold anything against Leon mostly cause she knew where she was standing when it broke free, he and the rest of the staff aside from her and Elizabeth had been on the side near the door while the two women weren’t, had they tried to go for the door then the Wendigo would’ve done much worse to both of them than it did to Asena. She just quickly typed out a message to him saying ‘I’m fine. It’s not your fault. I’m going into town to get my prescription done up and hoping to get some stuff from Martha & Pete’s place.’ then hit send before pocketing her phone.

Once the train pulled up, the doors hissed open and Employees filed out on both sides before allowing the mother and daughter to step inside. “Can we go to Martha and Pete’s?” she asked, her mother nodding without saying anything. “Does...Rayne have a sweet tooth?”

“In all honesty, I don’t know.” she answered. “I know she occasionally likes a strawberry milkshake but it’s not like she has them all of the time like her pomegranates. I mean you could try?” As the train moved, Juniper grabbed the bar above her head as Asena wrapped her good arm around the pole and let it rest against the front of her shoulder. “If she learned you adored Rock Candy then she might want to try it cause you like it.”

“So I’ll just...double my order of Rock Candy?” Juniper shrugged at the question. “Mom…”

The older redhead looked at her daughter and sighed. “Honey, you’re asking me questions I don’t know. I know enough about Rayne such as what she likes to eat for her meals, I know that she’s a pain in my fucking ass, and I know for some reason she’ll only tell you things she will never tell myself or any of the other scientists. I don’t know anything about her past because she’d never tell me. She’d just look at me funny or with a smug smirk on her face and divert the questioning with a question of her own that she knows would work me up. Rayne knows how many buttons I have and knows exactly how to push them.”

So Rayne learned what worked people up or was it just those that worked in her lab? She spent 26 years being in that cell, under OWCO’s watchful eyes, and that her mother had been coming home frustrated for years for as long as she could remember. Asena wondered if Rayne would test her limits, wonder what annoyed her, and see how exactly to push her buttons but the way the otherworldly woman treated her differently opposed to everyone else in the lab contradicted that thought. One thing that did cross the young woman’s mind was, how long had it been since Rayne had left the facility or had she been cooped up in the building since she was captured.

Humming, she leaned against the pole as she thought. When she went to ask her mother something, the train came to a stop and she decided to not ask about it right now. The mother and daughter left the train and made their way down the large set of stairs into the town, Juniper telling her that she could go to Martha and Pete’s while she got Asena’s prescription filled and would meet her there. Great, that meant she had to think of some excuse to tell the couple, she knew Martha would fret the second she walked in with a bandaged shoulder and she wouldn't exactly say a wendigo attacked her not only cause it was classified but it sounded ridiculous and she knew if she didn’t work for OWCO than she probably would’ve laughed.

She opened the door and stepped in, she saw Martha checking someone out and talking with them so she didn’t exactly see her yet. After grabbing a basket, she went straight to the stuffed cats, the same ones dressed up as different professions, and grabbed another scientist cat for Amelia. Looking at the others, she was trying to figure out what she could get for Rayne. Even if the woman hadn’t saved her from the wendigo, she would’ve gotten her a toy but she wanted to thank her for helping her. She picked up one cat and chuckled as she saw it dressed in what looked like a victorian dress holding a book in one paw and a quill in the other.

Giggling, Asena looked the plush over and put it in the basket before moving to grab a few different flavors of rock candy for Rayne to try as well. She grabbed a few bags of the candies she knew her mom liked to eat and grabbed a bag of hard caramel candies for Amelia before turning and jumping as she saw Martha really close to her. “Fucking hell, Martha!” she gasped out as she itched at her chest, as if the itching would calm her heart down. “Don’t do that!”

“What the fuck happened?!” Martha exclaimed.

A snort of laughter escaped the young woman. Had she expected Martha to react that way? Yeah, she did. “Lab accident. Nothing serious but there’s stitches. Mom will be here in a bit. She’s getting my prescription before coming over.” She grabbed at a bag of cola gummies mostly for herself and another bag of cherry cola gummies. 

As if she knew Asena was talking about her, Juniper walked in while tucking the medicine bag into her purse. Seeing her daughter, she walked up and stood beside her before smiling at Martha. “Hello Martha.” The two hugged one another quickly before Juniper moved some of her daughter’s hair over her shoulder.

“What happened?” Martha asked. “Asena just said a lab accident.”

Juniper grit her teeth together for a second, realizing of course her daughter wouldn’t come up with an idea and instead would let her figure it out. “Lab equipment on an upper shelf fell when one of our co-workers tripped into it, a beaker broke on her shoulder and a piece of glass dug pretty far into her shoulder and upon removable, it needed stitches.”

Martha looked almost skeptical but knew if it was involved with their work, it was classified. “I see.” she stated. “Do you guys want any cupcakes?”

“Yeah actually, can we get four?” asked Juniper.

With a nod, the woman walked over to the cupcake display case and Juniper followed to point out which ones she wanted but the fourth was chosen by Asena and her mother almost instantly knew it wasn’t for her. It was a black velvet cake with a white cream cheese frosting with red food coloring on it in a blood splatter way and a piece of sugar crystalized to look like a piece of glass. She had chosen a similar one for Asena but she could already almost tell that Asena wanted to get Rayne a cupcake. Once she had the cupcakes, she let Asena put her stuff up and paid for it rather than having her daughter pay for it, she chuckled at the sight of the other scientist kitty, realizing that the young woman had gotten it for Amelia.

Pete came out from the backroom and smiled at the two. “Good, I wanted to catch Asena before you guys left.” He sat what looked like a lightbulb on the counter and all three women knit their brows together. “It’s not actually a lightbulb.” he chuckled. “It’s a cup.”

Asena reached forward and took it, it was filled with a bright pink liquid the 25 year old automatically compared to that medicine people took for upset stomachs or even bubblegum. It had what looked like chopped up jelly in it. “What is it?”

“Just try it.” he smiled, placing a straw through the hole at the top of it, the cup basically looked like an upside down lightbulb.

“Why is she always the test dummy?” asked Martha as the young woman put the straw into her mouth.

As she took a sip, her brows came together again before looking up at the couple again and drinking more. “Breathe, please.” chuckled Juniper.

“It tastes like cotton candy but it looks like medicine.” she stated, holding the straw between her teeth as she talked. “And there’s...jelly in it?” Pete nodded. “Sell this shit.”

“Gonna.” he stated. “Wanted to run it by you first.”

Asena held it out towards Juniper and she took it, quickly taking a sip and flinching lightly cause she got a piece of jelly, having not expected it even though she heard it was in. “Mm...too sweet for me but that’s probably good enough for Asena.”

“I love it.” she managed.

“I’ll bring a couple to the building tomorrow.” Pete stated as Asena stuck the straw back into her mouth and drank it, she was already through half before he finished his sentence. “Give me that, let me refill it and don’t chug it.”

Giggling, she passed the cup to him and she waited for him to refill her cup as Martha and Juniper talked. Pete was quick however, he passed the cup to her and the two women bid them goodbye since they needed to get back to the facility but also Asena was slightly impatient to get the stuffed cat toy to Rayne. It made her question when the last time someone truly cared for Rayne, loved Rayne but would that be weird to ask? Would it be weird to ask who her family was, did she have a family? She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t snap out of them until she and her mother were standing on the train back to OWCO.

“Mom can I talk to you?” she asked, making her mother look at her weird. “About...Rayne.”

“I already told you everything I…”

“Can we take her out of the facility for a while?”

That made her mother look at her as if she grew a second head. Perhaps she should’ve expected the weird expression, she was asking if she could take a highly dangerous contained specimen out of OWCO. “I’m sorry. What the hell did you just ask me?”

“Nothing.” she quickly answered before looking down at her shoes.

Juniper used her free hand to tuck hair behind her daughter’s ear. “I don’t know exactly what your plan is but we’ll discuss it with Amelia.” That gave the young woman some hope since her plan was to just give Rayne some freedom, even if it was just for twenty minutes.

The two went to Asena’s apartment once getting back to the facility and Amelia showed up shortly after Asena sat down at her desk. The strawberry blonde looked near exhausted but since there was a containment breach, that meant she had paperwork to fill out as well as go over the incident report Elizabeth wrote. Amelia fell into the plush recliner that Asena didn’t use and mostly had for either her or Juniper.

“Asena wants to let Rayne out of the facility.” sighed Juniper as she passed Amelia a cup of tea.

“You’re on crack.” was Amelia’s quick answer.

Asena huffed as she looked at the two. “I want to let her out for like thirty minutes. You can have guards nearby with tranquilizers.” Amelia just rolled her eyes and sipped her tea. “All she sees is the inside of her room, occasionally other rooms when she needs to be taken somewhere for testing, and a view. I want to take her into town. For thirty minutes to an hour. You can have many guards watching us from the shadows, if anything goes wrong with her then you can recapture her.”

The strawberry blonde groaned and swallowed her mouthful of tea. “You are aware that she is a highly dangerous contained specimen, right?” Asena just nodded as Amelia tilted her head back to look at Juniper, her eyes silently asking the woman for help. Never had one of their scientists or even their idiotic interns ask for a level 5 creature to be freed for a short period of time so really the woman was unsure how to react.

“Well...Rayne does react better with Asena than any of us.” sighed the woman as she sat on the arm of the recliner. “Say we allowed it, Asena could threaten that if Rayne tried to run, she’d never see her again or...something.”

Rubbing her face, the woman sat forward to set her cup on the table as she looked at her girlfriend’s daughter, the young woman staring at her computer screen. “Fine. I will agree to it but you are to go nowhere other than the town. Rayne will be made aware that if she so much as uses a form of her power, in front of civilians, she will be automatically tranquilized and brought to her room.” Asena nodded almost too eagerly. “Juniper and I will discuss it and get back to you about when we’ll allow it. You just keep talking to Rayne.”

The two older women eventually went to their apartment, leaving Asena by herself but she was tired as it was so after cooking something up for dinner and eating it, she passed out for nearly ten hours. The following morning came a bit quicker than she would’ve liked but Asena was walking to the lab, her left arm still under her breasts and gripping at the right side of her top. Her shoulder wasn’t as bad but it was sore. She swiped her card and stepped into the lab after the door slid open, dumping her stuff on the desk before opening her bottle of pills and putting one into her mouth; she wanted to wait until she got to the office. 

“Morning Asena.” said her mother’s voice from her own desk. She gave a small morning back but was unsure if her mother heard it, if she didn’t then she didn’t say anything. She was tired, sore, and just over all feeling blah.

The door opened and she saw a man in a hazmat suit carrying a tray; Rayne’s breakfast. “I got it.” she said moving over and grabbing it with her right hand. He looked almost unsure about giving it to her. “Mom…”

“Give it to her.” ordered Juniper, the woman not looking back at them as she typed at her computer. He shrugged and released the tray, allowing the young woman to take hold of it before leaving the lab. “You’re not feeling good.”

“I’m not.”

“You can go back to your place and rest.”

Shaking her head, she let out a small huff. “No, it’s fine. I’m sure I’ll feel better once the pill kicks in. She set the tray down and grabbed the stuffed cat that she got for Rayne, into the right pocket of her lab coat and a few things of rock candy before picking up the tray once more. The door unlocked as she approached it and she mouthed her thanks to her mother who nodded.

Rayne was sitting at the table with her typewriter, her left fist pressed against her cheek and the nails on her right hand were tapping against the polished wood surface of her desk. She was in her own world until she heard the small noise of plastic meeting the wooden surface of her dining room table. “Is it breakfast time already?” she inquired, mostly too herself.

“Yes.” spoke Asena’s voice, the woman looking over her shoulder to see Asena pulling a chair out and sitting in it.

“Morning to you too, gorgeous.” the dark haired woman chuckled as she rose to her feet.

The 25 year old became very aware that Rayne was wearing a pair of leather pants and a black button up with her sleeves rolled to her elbows. “Mornin’.” was her response as she pointed at the breakfast. It was a full pomegranate, a bowl of a fruit salad containing several different fruits and a honey dressing, and a bowl of walnuts with what looked like a glass of wine. Who drank wine first thing in the morning? “Does alcohol bother you?”

“Extremely high tolerance.” she answered as she pulled the chair beside Asena out and sat down, her legs crossing and Asena chose to ignore the sound of the leather squeaking slightly at the movement. “I’d need to drink two vineyards worth of product to be drunk.” She saw the young woman nod but said nothing as she bit at the right corner of her bottom lip. “What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing.” Rayne’s blood red eyes just stared at her. “Fine, I’m sore. I took a pill when I got here so…” she waved a hand.

That caused brows to come together in thought. “What’s sore? Your shoulder or the stitches?”

“All of it.”

“I can…”

Asena realized where she was going to go with that. “No, I don’t think your numbing agent would help much. It’s fine. The medicine will help, I think it’s mostly just the area.”

The dark haired woman pursed her lips before chuckling softly. “I can hear your stomach.” A blush rose on Asena’s face. “You said you liked pomegranates right?” A nod. Rayne pushed the claw like nails on her thumbs into the flesh of the pomegranate before she ripped it in half, several seeds lightly clattering onto the tray. She sat one half in front of Asena and grinned at her, a toothy grin at that. “It’s not much but it’ll tie you over until you all get your lunch.”

“It’s fine, thank you.” she responded as she went to touch the seeds but stopped, knowing well enough that the fruit would stain her fingertips. A brow raised at the younger woman’s reaction before Rayne picked up her spoon and passed it to her. “Don’t you need it?” She saw a motion towards the fork that sat beside where the spoon used to lay. Taking the spoon, she gently scraped some of the seeds out and put them into her mouth. “Oh, I brought you something.”

That caused Juniper to look up from her computer screen. She knew Asena knew better than to bring anything dangerous to the woman but was genuinely curious. She watched Asena remove the handful of rock candy but that was set down in front of Rayne’s tray before a stuffed cat was held out to the woman. “Oh...what is it?” asked Rayne as she took the dressed up cat.

“The store I go to sells stuffed cats dressed up as careers. I’m guessing that’s...writing.” Rayne lightly scraped one of her thumb nails down the material the dress was made of. “I got one for my mom and Dr. Lycan but I wanted to get you one.”

Red eyes looked between the toy and the redhead, lips parted but no words leaving them. Juniper leaned back in her chair with a raised brow, had Asena rendered Rayne speechless...again? “You wanted to get me one.” whispered the otherworldly woman as she looked at the toy. “Why?”

Shit. How did Asena answer that? “Because I wanted to. Don’t make me go into further detail, please.”

Rayne said nothing as she moved the cat head back and forth before smiling. “It’s been years since someone has given me a present.” she whispered, mostly too herself but Asena heard it. “Thank you.”

Asena smiled at her and unbeknownst to her, Rayne felt her heart hammering in her chest just at the smile. “Can I ask you...personal questions?”

“Um…”

“If it’s too personal, you can say skip.”

The dark haired woman inhaled deeply before nodding. “Sure, that sounds good.”

Opening her lab coat, she pulled the notepad and pen out from the inside pocket and set them down. “Okay, were you born like…” she made a motion towards Rayne.

Rayne hummed and chuckled. “No. I was born human. Born in the countryside of France. I was human for twenty years, shortly after my twentieth birthday a plague started that was spreading through rats. Rats acted as if they had rabies, would attack us and actually eat us.” She watched Asena write it down, her handwriting neat just like Juniper’s but it was obviously Asena’s writing and not her mothers, she should’ve figured the mother would ensure her daughter could write neatly. “Your next question is how did I become…?” she motioned to herself and she saw Asena nod, her blue eyes wide and showing curiosity. “I was...dying, I think. I got sick from the plague several months after my parents and siblings had passed from it. I was found by a woman who lived outside of our village, she was known to practice witchcraft. All of the kids were ordered not to go near her but she found me and she cared for me.” She itched at her right cheek as she seemed to blank out. “I don’t...remember much during my time with her. I just remember going to sleep and then when I woke up…” She held her right hand out as wisps of what someone would assume was smoke, but really was shadows, swarmed around her hand. She saw Asena stop writing and look up, tilting her head to examine the shadows. “You can touch it.”

“It won’t hurt me?”

“Not unless I want it too.” reassured the older woman.

Shifting in her seat, she gently moved her fingers across the top of Rayne’s hand and watched as her fingers broke the wisps of shadows and they fizzled out. “Wait…”

“They’re not solid unless I want them to be.” teased Rayne, her fang like canines showing in her smile. “And right now, I don’t want them to be.”

“You’re mean.”

Rayne made a playful face at her before eating her fruit salad, which she had scraped the pomegranate seeds into. “Not mean, just don’t feel like it.” Asena just turned her attention back to her notepad.

Messing with her hair, the younger woman was debating on asking her next question or not but ultimately decided her mother would if she didn’t and Rayne wouldn’t answer her. “Were you married?”

She saw Rayne stop mid chew and her eyes stared at the wall directly ahead of her. She seemed as if she was internally struggling with how to answer the question. “You said I could skip?”

“I did.”

“You won’t be mad?” Asena shook her head. “Skip.”

Ignoring the question, she moved to the next one she had written down. “When did you come to America? Since you’re from France.”

Running a hand across her neck as she tilted her head back, a small groan leaving her as she thought. “Ah...I think April of sixteen hundred. Give or take a month. It was...chilly but not overly cold until after the sun went down for the day.” She watched the young woman write the answer down. “Can I ask you questions?” That caused the young woman to look up a bit before looking back down. “If they’re too personal you can say skip.”

“God you’re a bitch.”

Rayne smirked and leaned back as she grabbed her glass of wine. “Yes or no?”

“Fine.” drawled Asena. “We’ll take turns, I just asked so…”

The dark haired woman cooed and turned sideways in her seat, crossing her legs and Asena heard the squeaking of her leather pants again. “How long have you known you were gay? Lesbian, whatever.”

“Since I was fourteen.” she answered without hesitation.

The woman hummed and sipped the wine. “I get another one cause you asked me two.” She saw Asena give the famous Juniper eye roll, of course she inherited her mother’s expressions. “How many girlfriends have you had?” Asena just held up two fingers. “Can I get a verbal answer?”

“Two. One in freshman year of high school that ended the summer just before my sophomore year and another one in my junior that ended shortly after I graduated.” she answered quickly. “I’m on good terms with the first one, the second one wasn’t...that good.”

“Cause the whore cheated on you.” spoke Juniper’s voice through the speaker making Asena inhale deeply and exhale.

The look on Rayne’s face showed she seemed angry, her teeth were gritting together and she had to place the cup down after the first crack appeared near the top, thankfully and not where there was still any liquid. “Ask your question.” was all she managed after a moment, dragging her thumb across the crack and huffing.

Looking at her list, she tilted her head as she thought of which one to choose. “Did you ever go to any other countries?”

Nodding, the older woman shifted in her seat. “Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Russia, and Norway.”

“Wait...really?” Rayne hummed and nodded. “I thought you would’ve been to more than that.”

“I’ve been to each state at least three times. Including Alaska and Hawaii. I prefer to stay in the US, I don’t...like traveling as much.” she answered as Asena nodded, writing down quick notes rather than everything she said. “Favorite candy?”

“Too easy.” she tapped the table where some of the rock candy laid and Rayne grabbed one, rolling the wooden stick between her fingers and watching the purple rock candy twirl. “You can ask another.”

Rayne hummed as she unwrapped the candy and ran her index finger over it, feeling the candy’s texture. “Aside from the wendigo attack, what was the worst injury you got on the job?”

Shrugging, Asena made a noise that pretty much said she didn’t know. “I’ve...never gotten hurt aside from the coal sprites biting me. So I guess when a coal sprite bit me.”

The rest of the next few hours were spent discussing some of Rayne’s life as well as Rayne asking her a bunch of questions that she answered. Juniper chimed in sometime near noon to tell Asena she had to go on her lunch break for the next hour and a half. The younger woman closed her notepad and stuck her pen against the metal wire at the top. As the door opened, Rayne ran a hand through her hair and huffed.

“I was married.” spoke the woman making Asena turn to look back at her from her position in the open doorway. “But we’ll talk about that when you get back. Enjoy your lunch.”

Juniper had to grab her daughter’s wrist and tug her through the doorway so it could close and lock behind her. “You did good. I only got small tidbits out of her in twenty-six years.” She turned her chair to face Asena and saw her looking towards Rayne, the woman tucking a thing of rock candy into the right side of her mouth and crunching down, taking little over half of the candy off the wooden stick. “She wants to tell you more, she trusts you.” She more than just trusted Asena but Juniper wasn’t telling her that, it was obvious the otherworldly woman was attracted to her daughter. “Go get some lunch. Bring me back the soup of the day please.”

Asena nodded and grabbed her wallet out of her purse before making her way to the cafeteria. As perusal, it was busy and filled with either scientists, interns, or other personal like security guards or the custodial staff. The only time it wasn’t so busy was between the hours of midnight to four, there were about maybe a dozen people in the cafeteria between those times and that was its peak. She carefully tucked the notepad into the inside pocket of her lab coat as she approached the line when Leon squeezed himself between her and an intern that was behind her. “Sup.”

“You can’t just cut.” spat out the intern.

“I can when Dr. Marlowe got injured on the job and needs someone to carry her tray.” he snapped in return, if there was one thing he didn’t like, it was ill mannered interns that thought they could speak to them in that manner cause it meant they spoke to others in that tone. “So how about you watch your tone.”

The intern actually looked embarrassed. “Right, sorry. I heard she got injured during work. I’m sorry.”

“Just watch the tone, kid. If I was Dr. Lycan, you’d be out of a job.” he spoke looking back at him. He motioned towards the woman who was sitting at a table, looking over some notes with her food next to her. “Especially today, she’s been…”

“She’s more irritable cause I got hurt on her watch in a way.” answered Asena before taking a tray and setting it on the counter in front of the buffet like displays. “But like Leon said, don’t speak to your higher ups like you’re better than them. It can not only get you in trouble but if you do it to the wrong person, then your job gets a whole lot harder and a whole lot shitter.” she grabbed a bowl of salad before placing it on the tray. She felt Leon lean over to grab his own salad before she ran her eyes over the other items for food, she wanted to try and think about what she knew she could handle without feeling like crap afterwards. She grabbed two venison gyros and set them down on the tray before shifting to grab a bottle of soda.

She paid for her food and waited for Leon to get his done, the man taking Asena’s tray since he used her as an excuse to get his food faster and the two walked over to the table Amelia was sitting at. The woman looked nearly frazzled. “Geez, you okay?” asked Leon, making Amelia look up at the two over the rim of her glasses. She placed her pen to her lips, a silent way of telling him to shut up.

“Amelia…” was all Asena needed to say.

“I’ve got my higher ups breathing down my neck right now. I fucking hate them.” she growled out. In the entire facility, Amelia was one of the higher ups so Asena figured it was whoever was in charge of OWCO, she always just thought it was a branch of the government, which it very well might be but Asena didn’t know them. “They’re not...happy about the whole Wendigo thing and then I had to lie and say that Rayne managed to get herself free.”

“Cause mom would’ve been in trouble.”

“Because your mother would’ve gotten in trouble.” sighed the strawberry blonde as she pushed her glasses up. “She would be forced to be brought to a trial, her incompetence would be brought into question because at the mere mention of you, she willingly let Rayne out.”

Asena carefully sat her left elbow onto the table, feeling the stitches slightly tug at her skin; God, how she hated stitches. She was unwrapping one of her gyros and looked at who she considered her other mother. “I thought nobody but the higher ups answered too...well your higher ups.” she stated, merely in curiosity at how they found out. 

“When someone gets hurt during work, we have to report it. They don’t have much say in the goings on at OWCO other than the files we are sent about new specimens they want a team sent out to capture.” Dr. Lycan shifted her tray and stabbed a good fork full of her salad and put it into her mouth.

Leon saw Asena struggling to open her bottle of soda and took it from her hands. “Is it the Government?” The older woman hummed and pursed her lips. “Oh come on, that can’t be classified.”

“It’s not.” She sighed before looking at the 25 year old sink her teeth into her gyro and eat it, mostly minding her own business. “It is and no, I don’t know which branch.” She passed a napkin to Asena, the redhead raising a brow only for Amelia to lean forward and wipe at the corner of her mouth. “You’re making a mess. How much tzatziki did they put on that?”

“A lot.” was all Asena could manage with her mouth half full.

Amelia rolled her eyes and looked back down at her paperwork. “We can do what you wanted with Rayne.” That caused the young woman to stop mid chew and look up at her with an unreadable expression on her face. “I have the people and they understand the situation. This is one thing that will not be reported.”

Wiping at her mouth, really just in case, Asena ran a hand through her hair to push the loose strands back. “Really? You’re serious?” Amelia hummed and nodded. “When?”

“Friday. Take it or leave it.” 

“I need to tell mom.”

Amelia made a noise and pointed at the seat with her pen. “You need to sit your ass back down in that seat and just eat.” Asena looked at Amelia with a raised brow. “You are returning to your mother once you are done, sit and eat. Please.”

Leon looked at Asena as the young woman seemed to be internally debating whether or not to listen to Amelia or not but ultimately, she nodded and returned to her food. Leon and Asena did most of the talking, even discussing the coal sprites since he claimed they seemed to notice she wasn’t there but in all honesty, she didn’t know if that was true or if he was trying to make her feel better about not being able to work on her other specimens. After eating her two gyros and her salad, she closed her soda and put it into one of her pockets before walking back over to the line, which was now much smaller given mostly everyone was sitting down, and grabbed two sodas and then the soup of the day for her mom. She paid for it and walked over to Amelia, kissing her cheek before leaving the cafeteria to head back to Rayne’s observation lab. What she didn’t notice was the look of disdain that crossed Dr. Shaw’s face as she passed him, he was lucky he had a job cause from what Asena heard, Amelia ripped him a new asshole about what happened. She wouldn’t lie when she was surprised he didn’t have anything snarky to say to her, maybe he wouldn’t because Amelia was still in the cafeteria.

Entering the lab, she set the cup of soup down beside Juniper with her preferred soda. “Amelia gave me the okay.” her mother hummed. “For the idea I had...with a certain someone.” 

Juniper paused as she was opening the cup and thought back to what the young woman was talking about. “Oh. Did she?” she asked. “Well, you tell her. What kinda soup is it?”

“Uh, chicken noodle but the lady said they used thick noodles so I asked for a large so you get more broth.”

“Thank you.” she hugged Asena before motioning for her to go back to Rayne.

The dark haired woman perked up as the sound of the door opened, she was sitting back at her desk with a thin stack of papers off to her right. She pulled the paper in her typewriter out and set it upside down on the stack of paper. “Hello Asena. Did you enjoy your lunch?”

She hummed and sat down at the table she had been at previously. “I did, they had gyros in the cafeteria today so I was happy.”

“You like gyros?” A nod. Rayne stood up and walked over to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting down. “May I ask for more of that...rock candy?”

A small smile creeped up on Asena’s face. “You ate the few I gave you?”

Straightening her back and looking almost defensive, Rayne narrowed her eyes at the young woman. “It’s not my fault the candy is so brittle.” Of course she’d see it as brittle where it took her a little bit to finish one.

“You’re not supposed to crunch it right away.” The red eyed of the other woman looked around before settling on Asena. “Oh dear lord.” she laughed before standing up and knocking on the window making Juniper look up with half a noodle sticking out of her mouth. “Wanna grab me a few rock candies?”

Her mother sucked the noodle into her mouth, pushed her glasses up, and rolled over to Asena’s desk. She opened up the top of the container that held rock candy and took several out before rolling over to the door, opening it and Asena took them from her mother’s hand that reached into the room. She said her thanks and watched as her mother rolled back to her desk and continued eating her lunch.

Asena sat back down and unwrapped one, this one a pale red and if she had to guess was most likely cherry. She stuck it in her mouth and lightly bit down, growling as her teeth couldn’t force a lot of it to break. “I don’t have otherworldly teeth.” she stated, a small snort of laughter leaving the dark haired woman. “You can have the rest.” Rayne instantly unwrapped a blue one and stuck it in her mouth. “Try and suck on it a bit before you…” the sound of teeth crushing the rock candy made her sigh as Rayne slid the candy out of her mouth and saw half of it was once again missing. “Okay. You know what, eat it however you want.”

Brushing some hair out of her face, the otherworldly woman turned the candy sideways and sank her teeth through it. She needed to cup a hand under her mouth to catch the rest that broke off and she sucked the bits and candy dust off the stick before putting the rest in her mouth from her hand. “Wanna know about my marriage now?” 

“If you want.” Rayne waved a hand, telling her to ask away. “Was it a man or a woman?”

“Woman. Her name was Katherine, I called her Kat or Kitty Cat. God how she hated Kitty Cat.” she let out a chuckle before tilting her head. She cleared her throat and slid her hand into her hair to brush it back, her hand remaining on the top of her head as her claw like nails itched ever so softly at her scalp. “I met her in sixteen eighty-six. She was, I think nineteen at the time. I lived in the woods near Salem and she got lost near my home and ultimately ran into me as I was gardening .”

“Massachusetts?” inquired the 25 year old. She heard a hum and saw a nod. “O-Oh…”

Pursing her lips, she inhaled deeply before sitting straight up. “We obviously couldn’t get married at the time but we...we did in our own little way by the time she was twenty. A year later, she had Isabel.” That caused Asena’s brows to come together in confusion. “Oh, right. You don’t know. Nobody knows. Why would they? I don’t mention it.”

Juniper moved and pushed a finger down on the button. “Know what?”

“Don’t speak with your mouth full.” ordered Rayne, Juniper scrunching her face up in disdain at the order. “I...I can make a cock and impregnate women.” Asena let out a weird noise, silently thankful that she wasn’t drinking anything but Juniper on the other hand wasn’t so lucky.

She spit out the soda in her mouth before coughing. “Mother fucker!” snapped the older woman as she stood up and turned her back to Rayne’s room.

That seemed to get a chuckle out of Rayne, the tip of her abnormally long tongue peaking out from between her teeth as she grinned. “I’m sorry, you can...do what now?” asked Asena.

“Make a cock. Dick. Penis. What other words do you want me to use?” she cooed as she leaned closer to Asena, more of her tongue slipping out of her mouth in the process.

“Put that away please.” she said, making the dark haired woman chuckle and pull her tongue back into her mouth before running the heel of her hand against her mouth. “Can you behave?”

“Wanna see it?”

“NO!” was all Asena could manage making Rayne bust out laughing.

She formed a pout on her face, one that Asena knew wasn’t entirely genuine since she knew she was fucking with her. “Pity. Anyways. Isabel came a year later. We lived in my home in the woods, Kat only going into town when she needed to but we grew most of our stuff. There was one night that I was going out and I heard a scream. A child had either gotten lost from their parents or she had wandered away from his home. She was stuck in a tree, several wolves trying to get up to her and they would’ve killed her if I hadn’t intervened.” Rayne grit her teeth together as a slight rumbling growl came from her, her teeth bared. “I should’ve let her die.”

While the way she said it did slightly terrify the young woman, she grabbed the hand on the table, slipping her fingers under the left side of her hand. “Hey…”

The action seemed to make Rayne snap out of whatever mood she was disappearing into, looking down she saw the hand holding her own. “I shouldn’t say that but if I didn’t save her, then Kat and Isabel would’ve lived longer. I was foolish, I used my powers to scare off the wolves. Hell if that didn’t clue in that I was different, my eyes would’ve. She was so happy and I escorted her to the backyard of her home before going off to finish what I needed to do. When I came back the house was on fire.” Her teeth grit together again and she shook her head. “I managed to put the fire out but neither Kat or Isabel were in there. So my next thought was, the town. I ran to the town just in time to watch as Kat was being burned at the stake.” A soft gasp left the young woman. “Salem Witch Trials, my dear.”

“You can stop…”

“No. The girl had told her parents that a witch saved her from the wolves and when they showed up at the house they assumed it was Kathrine. It wasn’t Kathrine, sure the woman knew her herbal medicine but...from what I remember, the girl was telling them that she wasn’t the witch. The witch was…” she motioned to herself. “While yes, my wife was dying a slow and painful death, my first thought was where is Isabel. The fuckers...she was five. She was little, she was miraculously human. They didn’t want the witch bloodline continuing.”

“Stop, Rayne just…”

“I slaughtered them.” she spoke firmly. “I slaughtered each and everyone of them save for the children. The children did nothing wrong. The adults on the other hand...do you know how it feels to be drenched in blood and viscera? Do you know how sticky it is? What the stench is? You cut yourself and the smell is coopery but imagine it on a scale so large...there were two hundred adults at the burning, give or take a few. The next year is blank, I remember nothing.”

Asena should’ve been writing this down, she knew she should’ve but she just sat there watching as Rayne shifted their hands and rubbed her thumb back and forth across the top of her hand. She was doing it in a manner as if she was consoling Asena when Rayne was the one who needed the consoling. “You didn’t have to tell me all of that.”

“I did.” she exhaled as she lightly dragged her claw like thumb nail across the flawless skin of Asena’s hand, well the top of it, her fingers were a bit scared here and there. “I suppose I could say it’d been eating me up for a long time. Typing it doesn’t help as much as I assumed it would. So…sure you don’t wanna see me make a…”

“NO! Nope! No. I am good, thank you.” Asena interrupted as Rayne chuckled. “How can you do that?” A hum. “Go from serious to...well messing with me.”

The Otherworldly woman shrugged and hummed. “I could be depressed as shit and I’ll force a smile on. Because smiling means I most likely get to see pretty ladies smile back and the smile from a beautiful woman, specifically one with red hair and blue eyes, makes the depression go away just a little bit.”

A huff of laughter escaped the young woman. “Smooth.” She saw Rayne shrug and lean back in her chair, their hands slipping apart and Asena swore she hated not having the warmth against her anymore. “Alright my turn, I have something to tell you and you need to listen. Okay?” A nod. “I convinced Dr. Lycan to allow you, under supervision, you will be allowed out into the town.” A brow raised. “With me.”

“By under supervision…?”

Before she could answer her, Juniper interrupted. “Means if you so much as show a wisp of your power, you’ll be tranq and lugged back here.” 

Pursing her lips, the woman seemed annoyed at the way it was worded before looking back towards Asena. “I’ll behave. When?”

“Friday. Two days from now.” she answered, it was Wednesday. “If I had to guess time, then noonish. I don’t know, I gotta ask Dr. Lycan.”

Rayne smiled before taking Asena’s hand and pressing her lips to it only for her to quickly yank her hand back as Rayne’s tongue was peaking out. “If you ever wanna see…”

“Oh my GOD!” was all Asena could do and Rayne busted out laughing.

Her mother gave her props after the day was done, Rayne almost not wanting to let her go but Asena handled her calmly. She didn’t raise her voice unless bothered by Rayne’s constant proposition to see her make a dick. Rayne was a gorgeous woman, anyone could see that and the fact she looked around maybe her mid to late 30s made Asena slightly happy, she always had a thing for women a bit older than her.

Asena was sitting at her desk in her apartment, typing the notes she had taken during her talk with Rayne. She remembered the story about her wife and daughter pretty well so she didn’t need to have that written down. She heard the front door open and close, indicating either Juniper or Amelia had allowed themselves in. “Why did Leon just drop this off?” asked Juniper’s voice.

Looking, she saw Juniper holding a bag from the store she enjoyed in the city. “Oh, thank you.” She went to reach for it but Juniper pulled it back. “Ma!”

“What is it?” she inquired looking in the bag.

“It’s a dress I’ve been trying to get for weeks, I might have texted Leon to pick it up while he was in the city with his sister.” she huffed. Juniper set the bag down on the counter and pulled out a pastel blue and pinkish purple dress with cutesy drawings of bats, bones, crescent moons, lightning bolts, and stars.

Chuckling, she looked towards her daughter. “This is actually really cute.”

“I know. I wanted it.” she stated, making her mother snort with laughter. “I might wear it Friday. I have a pair of heeled boots that I might wear with them.”

Setting the dress back into the bag, she grabbed a chair from the dining room table and sat beside Asena as she turned pages on her notepad and continued typing. “What’s your cover? If you go to Martha’s, she’s gonna notice a seven foot tall woman with red eyes.”

“We’re on a date.” she responded quickly. “Her eyes are contacts and she’s just freakishly tall. She’s from the mainland and she came to visit me. We started dating a few months ago, only met once before then but she missed me and came to Andromeda. A ship is coming early Friday morning and staying till Sunday afternoon.”

Her mother nodded and leaned back in her chair. “Smart.” She should’ve figured her daughter would have it all set out already. “Did you want your hair braided for Friday?” A nod. “Well Friday morning come to my apartment and we’ll figure out your hair and make up.”

Asena looked at her and pursed her lips in thought. ”You’re weirdly...okay with my fake date with Rayne.” A shrug was all that came from the older woman. “Mom.”

“I’m worried. I’m always worried. I know how Rayne is and I’m worried that any moment, she’ll attempt to manipulate you even though I know you won’t let her.” she rushed out and Asena let out a small huff before leaning against her mother. “You’re a smart girl, kiddo.” She kissed her temple and patted her back as Asena chuckled at her mother’s praise.

The next day went by about as slow as Asena thought it would. She spent most of her time either in Rayne’s room or doing something her mother needed done on the computer, reports that took a good two hours to be properly done. She did go to the town during her break and bothered Martha but also got another drink in a fake lightbulb like she did before and finished her work up with no issues aside from Rayne and Juniper bickering like an old married couple, with Amelia found amusing when she came by to bring them some food. The rest of her night was spent going into town with Juniper and Amelia for dinner before coming home, doing a little bit of light work, and then passing out.

Now was it weird to say she was excited when she heard her alarm first thing Friday morning? She took a quick shower and blow dried her hair before dressing herself in the dress Leon had picked up for her and she slipped on a pair of tights before sliding her feet into her booted heels and tying the laces up. She looked over her earrings, did she wanna match or go something completely different from her cutesy looking dress...yeah completely different. She picked up a pair of neon green t-rex skull earrings and put them in before quickly applying some makeup, mostly eyeliner and some dark grey eyeshadow, running her lipstick across her lips before blinking at her reflecting in the mirror. Jesus...when was the last time she was on a date?

Shaking her head, she grabbed the black purse she would be using and put her wallet in it with her phone before leaving. She locked her door and moved to Juniper and Amelia’s apartment, unlocking it and entering it quickly mostly due to the fact she saw some interns slow down when watching her; either because they were ogling her or wanted to be nosey and see what their higher up’s apartment looked like. She closed the door and locked it as she saw Juniper sitting at the dining room table holding her head with one hand and a cup of coffee with her other.

“Don’t we look pretty and...your earrings don’t match your outfit.” spoke Amelia as she walked out of the bedroom, she was dressed for work while Juniper was only half dressed...she still had her night shirt on but had her work pants on. She needed coffee to function.

“That’s the point.” she muttered. “Mom said she’d braid my hair.”

Juniper inhaled deeply and took a swig of coffee before nodding. “Sit.” she ordered pulling a chair out. “Lemme get some hair ties and a brush.”

“Coffee?” asked Amelia.

Asena debated, mostly because of her lipstick but she stuck the tube into her purse just in case. “Sure.” she answered as she waited for her mother to return to the dining room. She took the cup of coffee from Amelia just as her mother walked out. “I already brushed out my hair.”

“Thank you, makes it easier.” Juniper stated as she ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair before separating it and braiding it without any problem. She tied the end of it off with a hair tie and patted her daughter’s head before fixing the strap of her dress to cover the bandages on her shoulder. It would be at least another week, if it healed properly, before the stitches were taken out.

Standing up, she saw her mother look at her and chuckle. “What?”

“Nothing, last time I saw you this dressed up was...for a holiday party we had last year. You look cute, that’s all that matters.” Asena chuckled and nodded at her mother’s compliment.

After Juniper got dressed, the three women left the apartment and walked down the hallway. Asena walked in between both of the older women, fully aware that some of the clacking of heels against the floor was from her; she rarely wore heels and mostly wore boots, the only time she ever wore heels was for some party she had to accompany the two older women too or if she had a date. She stood outside of Amelia’s office as the older woman got her some extra money, passing her about two hundred in bills. Since the higher ups couldn’t figure out that Amelia had allowed Rayne, a highly dangerous contained specimian, out of the building, Asena was unable to use the company credit card cause buying milkshakes and shit would be a bit of an eyebrow raiser when the charges were looked over. She folded the bills up and placed them into her wallet before kissing Amelia’s cheek and running to catch up with her mother.

The looks the interns gave her, perhaps the same exact look she gave them when catching them running or maybe it was the fact she was a higher up running down the hallway. She used her card to unlock the door and stepped in, several scientists in the room looking up at her and returning to their work. Even if they wanted to say something, it was the fear of Juniper retaliating that kept their mouths shut. She approached the window and tapped it rapidly with her right middle finger. She saw Rayne turn ever so slightly from her desk and returned to her typewriter before the door hissed open. “Did you have breakfast?” inquired the woman as she passed her purse to Juniper before going through the door.

“I did. Did you eat?”

Fuck, did she? “Yeah. I had a bagel.”

A soft chuckle escaped Rayne. “A bagel, is that even filling?”

Pursing her lips and letting out a small irritated noise, she saw the smile on Rayne’s face. Of course she was teasing, she’d have to get used to that. She had only been working on Rayne for a short period of time, Juniper would know her traits since she’s been working on Rayne for 26 years. “It was filling enough.” she answered making a breathy laugh leave the dark haired woman. “Rayne…” a soft hum escaped her. “...you get to leave the room for an hour or two.”

“I do.” she responded before leaning forward to look out the window. “And it’s a beautiful day for it.”

“Rayne.” came out more irritated than she wanted.

Turning sideways in her chair, the woman was laughing but stopped mid laugh as she saw Asena standing all dressed up. “I...okay.” was all she could manage, seeming speechless. She rose up from the chair and pushed it under the table. She straightened up and Asena still felt small even in heels, she wondered if Rayne was always 7 feet tall before becoming how she is now. “You look pretty.”

“Thank you. You look...uh…” She looked down and noticed Rayne was wearing leather pants. “You’re wearing leather again.”

“I am. If it’s...distracting, I can change.” the smugness in her voice made Asena glare at her. “Okay, okay. You approve?”

Asena nodded and smiled. “Yes, Rayne. I approve.” She wasn’t wearing a turtleneck but was wearing a black skin tight top that seemed to be almost made of the same material as a turtleneck but without the long sleeves. Her hair was mostly loose but the sides were pulled back and held back with some silver hair clip that had a red gemstone sitting on it. “You know the rules?”

“Don’t show even a wisp of my power or I’ll be tranquilized and lugged back here, then I’ll never be able to leave this room again.” she spoke. “Unless for tests I am assuming. By never leaving the room, I mean never leaving the building.”

“And if you don’t listen to me, I am obligated to believe you are to be brought back here instantly.” she spoke making Rayne sneer a little but nod. “Good so...mom?” She looked back at her mother who nodded and unlocked the door. She took Rayne’s hand and watched as the older woman looked almost confused at the gentle affection but allowed the smaller woman to lead her out of the room, she did need to duck a little due to the door being about 6 and a half feet tall.

Juniper looked between the two and silently remarked on how her daughter could easily keep the otherworldly woman calm. “I will be accompanying them but don’t draw attention to me if you don’t have too, my problem is Martha and Pete might notice if you do and I’ll feel bad if I give them the classified answer as well as contributing to some of the conspiracy theories that we’re running tests on their population when really we’re there to study Rayne and ensure she doesn’t go insane.”

“I don’t go insane.” hissed the woman, her fang like canines showing.

“Okay.” was all Juniper could manage as she tied her red hair back into a messy bun and grabbed her own purse. “Asena, lead. The guards tasked with the duty are mostly at the entrance but two will escort us there.”

Nodding, the 25 year old led Rayne out of the lab, needing to let her do the same slight ducking to get out of the lab and lead her down the hallway. Now the looks on the faces of the interns were slightly priceless and Asena had to silently remark on how it almost pleased her for them to be terrified that Rayne was walking down the hallway, holding hands with her. Actually Asena was loosely holding onto Rayne’s fingertips as she led the woman.

Red eyes scanned over every inch of the hallway they were walking down and latched onto the exit. The guards with their tranquilizer guns stepped aside to allow Asena to lead Rayne outside of the main doors. The first smell that hit her was the smell of the sea and Rayne inhaled deeply before exhaling and looking as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders. “Wanna ride the train?” asked Asena pointing, they could walk to the town but it would be so much easier.

“Um yeah, I watched that shit get built.” she laughed as Asena tugged her towards it.

The second Rayne was noticed at the train station, people almost instantly scattered and the dark haired woman chuckled slightly. She had to sit down due to her height but Asena was hugging onto the pole with her bad shoulder leaning against the pole. Perhaps she should’ve been chivalrous and let Asena sit but it was fine, she knew it would be difficult for herself to stand given her height. The train came to a stop and Asena let the first group of guards out before leading Rayne off the train and the woman busted out laughing as a shriek left one of the scientists, a male one at that.

“Take your positions.” ordered Juniper. “Ensure that you can see at least one of your coworkers but keep an eye on…” she motioned towards Rayne. The guards nodded and walked down the stairs except for one that stood beside Juniper. “Alright you two, enjoy yourselves and…” a finger was pointed at Rayne. “Behave. Do you understand me?”

Rayne stuck the tip of her tongue out and crossed her eyes at the order making Asena sigh. “She understands, mom.”

Kissing her daughter’s cheek, she looked back at Rayne and shook her head. “Do not make us regret this.”

Rayne said nothing as Juniper motioned for the two to leave, the younger redhead tugging the dark haired woman with her down the stairs. Their hands slipped apart and Rayne watched as Asena jogged down the cement stairs, her heels clacking against the cement and her dress moved with each movement. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned, the dress fanning out for a few seconds before settling, a smile on her face that made Rayne inhale sharply before following and motioning for her to continue leading.

As the younger woman led her into town, she wouldn’t lie if asked that she nearly had a sensory overload. She could smell the food from nearby restaurants or food carts, She could hear everyone talking around her but forced herself to focus on Asena, she could smell the sea much stronger than she could up at OWCO, and there was so much color. “You good?” asked Asena, the older woman looking at her and smiling.

“It’s...a lot.”

“Is that good?”

“Yeah.” her voice came out a bit squeaky making her clear her throat and smile at her. “Yeah, yeah. It’s good. I just wasn’t prepared I suppose, it’s loud back up there but I’ve grown accustomed to all the sounds and smells. Trust me, I’ve called your mother out for changing her perfume.” A soft chuckle came from Asena.

The young woman shifted her braid over her shoulder and shifted in her spot. “Do you want something to eat or drink? In all honesty I’ve never really been the one to plan this sort of stuff. Usually stuff is planned for me with the occasional idea I had thrown into the mix.”

Rayne looked around, she did notice some people either looking at her or looking at Asena but knew she couldn’t lash out. If she lashed out, there was a possibility that her powers would show. “A drink sounds good.”

“Then Martha and Pete’s.” she teased as she took Rayne’s hand and led her towards Martha and Pete’s shop.

The black haired woman saw as Asena opened the door, she did need to duck to step inside and almost didn’t cause she was distracted by the younger woman. Her eyes instantly started looking out, trying to take in everything in the store, but what she was most aware of was Asena’s hand slipping from her own as she approached the counter. She looked back and forth before hoisting herself up onto the counter to peak over it, her feet nearly a foot off the ground. Not seeing Martha, she allowed herself to drop and her heels clapped against the floor.

Rayne was gonna ask if something was wrong but Asena had other ideas. “Martha!” she shrieked.

The door leading into the back room opened and she saw Martha look towards her. “Asena?”

“I need some stuff.” she said making Martha nod before walking into the store. “I also need two of those drinks that your husband made me test.”

“Ah, shit. Hang on. Usual flavors?” the woman asked as she moved back to the door leading into the back.

“Uh…” Asena turned to face Rayne, the woman looking over stuff. “Rayne.”

“What?” she asked.

“Do you like cotton candy?” Rayne shrugged. “That’s not a yes or no.”

The woman huffed and looked towards her, her eyes looking at Martha before flickering towards Asena. “I guess? I haven’t really had…” She had to choose her words perfectly. “...cotton flavored drinks.”

Asena waved a hand as Martha raised her brow at her. “Yes, usual. Two. Pretty please.”

The older human woman nodded and moved to tell her husband that Asena wanted two drinks but when she looked back, the redhead had moved away from the counter and was standing beside Rayne. “So…” spoke Martha, making Asena look over her shoulder back at her. “Who is that?”

“It’s Rayne.” she answered.

“And who is Rayne?”

The red eyed woman narrowed her eyes as she stared at the bag of candy in her hand, mostly because of Martha’s questions. “My long distance girlfriend.” Rayne’s back instantly straightened and a brow raised at the statement. Wait shit, Asena never went over the story with her that she can remember. “She came in on the ship this morning and she’s leaving Sunday morning. We met online and only met once, she missed me.”

Martha seemed skeptical at first but a smile grew on her face. “Oh! That’s sweet! Where are you from?”

“San Francisco.” quickly answered Rayne as she looked at Martha, the woman looking her in the eyes but not reacting to the color. Martha probably automatically thought they were colored contacts. “We met…” she trailed off, trying to think.

“We met on a website where people post creepy stories. I read more than I wrote.” she chuckled as she hugged Rayne’s right arm. “I mostly read Rayne’s stuff. Really creepy stuff.”

Rayne chuckled and rubbed at the back of her head, trying to appear bashful but really she had no idea where Asena was going with this and didn’t wanna try and contribute to it. “It’s nice to meet you though, Asena talks a lot about you and your husband.”

That seemed to make the woman happy and she nodded before moving to the backroom to check on her husband. Asena released a breath of relief and saw Rayne looking at her with a near panicked look in her eyes. “It’s fine.” she whispered, patting Rayne’s arm. She saw the woman reach for something and look at it, it was two bracelets made of black rope and a singular bead on each one. “Oh, you want that?”

“I think it’s a couples thing.” she whispered, raising it for Asena to look. The piece of decorative packaging it was wrapped around had a sun and a moon design on it with the words ‘ _One for you. One for me_ ’ on it.

“It’s fine, we can get it.” she spoke as she reached over and plucked it from her hand.

Rayne said nothing but smiled as Asena turned towards the counter as Martha came out with Pete, the man holding the two drinks in their lightbulb shaped glasses. “Wow she is…” Asena raised a brow while Martha looked at him. “Tall. She is tall.”

Chuckling, she set the bracelets down and took the drinks, holding one out towards Rayne as the woman stepped forward quickly to take it into her hands. “Yes, Rayne is tall. How much?”

“Just pay for the bracelets.” chuckled Martha as she scanned it. “Seven fifty-eight.”

“God the height difference is adorable.” said Pete making Asena try not to blush as she passed Martha a ten. “How tall are you again?”

That caused the redhead to scrunch up her face. “You’ve known me since I was born and you dunno how tall I am?” He just looked at her and nodded. “For fucks...I’m five foot, eleven inches without my heels. She’s seven feet tall. She’s tall…”

Martha just gave the young woman a smile while rolling her eyes before passing her the change and the bracelets. “Enjoy the rest of your day, sweetie.”

Nodding, she waved and led Rayne out of the shop. Upon stepping out she could see one of the guards that accompanied them, he moved to the side as if trying to conceal himself from the general population. There were so many conspiracy theorists on the island when it came to OWCO, so many of them believed the company was experimenting on the people in the town so if they saw a guard, let alone several, there would be rumors. “Try it.” she stated as she tapped the lightbulb cup. “Pretty please.” Rayne chuckled and took the straw into her mouth before taking a small sip, her brows knitting together. “So seriously, you never had cotton candy?”

Sliding the straw out of her mouth, she inhaled deeply as her tongue peaked out to lick at her lower lip. “Nope. Never saw a reason too. I enjoy strawberry milkshakes from time to time but…” She tilted her head and sipped at it again. “I wasn’t expecting the sweetness level.”

“Mm.” hummed Asena before putting the straw of her own drink into her mouth and slowly drinking. “I adore it really.”

A soft chuckle escaped the older woman. “Don’t give yourself a brain freeze.” Blue eyes narrowed at her in slight annoyance. “I don’t get brain freezes.” she whispered low enough for only Asena to hear. “Trust me, I’ve eaten an entire tub of ice cream in two minutes.”

That statement alone caused Asena’s eyebrow to raise. “What the fuck did I just hear?” she asked mostly to herself as Rayne chuckled to herself. “Who eats an entire tub of ice cream in one sitting?” That caused a louder laugh to escape the dark haired woman.

The two women walked towards the beach but stopped on the boardwalk since Asena was wearing heels, Rayne crouched down to pick up a handful of sand and crush it lightly in her fingers. She could feel the texture of sand and shells in her hand before allowing it all to slide out of her hand. Asena noticed the woman looking at the ocean, she wondered if there was a part of her that wanted to try and escape. The woman picked up a shell before straightening up, turning the shell in her fingers before looking at the redhead.

“You good?”

Was she? There was so much temptation to just take off. To try and escape but if that happened, would she be tranquilized and lugged back to OWCO or was there a possibility she could escape but never see Asena again? “I’m good.” she whispered. “Are we done?”

“We can be. In all honesty I never put much thought into…” she motioned around them. “I just knew Martha and Pete’s was one place I wanted to go. Are you okay with only being out for…” she looked at her watch and rose a brow. “An hour?” It didn’t feel like an hour.

“Yeah.” she breathed as she looked around, she could hear one or two of the OWCO guards behind them somewhere off to her left.

The 25 year old didn’t move and that caused a brow to be raised as the dark haired woman looked at her. Asena tucked her cup between the inside of her left arm and her left breast as she undid one of the bracelets and placed it around the woman’s left wrist, securing it before turning it so the bead rested on the top of her wrist. Rayne poked at the bracelet with her right pinky before seeing Asena draping the bracelet over her own wrist. Rayne did the same as Asena with her cup before gently taking the bracelet in her fingers and carefully hooking it while making sure her claw-like nails didn’t ruin the bracelet’s rope. She then gently rotated the bracelet as the younger woman had her own and put the bead on top of her wrist.

The redhead tilted her head back to look up at Rayne and she had a genuine smile on her face. “I suppose it was only fair, I did your bracelet.” she chuckled and the other woman nodded. “Let's get you back home.”

Juniper looked up from her book to see her daughter climbing up the stairs with Rayne behind her. She motioned towards the guard chilling with her and he radioed the others to tell them to come back to the train station. Rayne was turning the seashell she had taken from the beach over in her fingers as she waited beside the two redheads. Once the rest of the guards got back, they boarded the train and made their way back up to OWCO, she did enjoy the look of surprise on Juniper’s face when Asena admitted that she was well behaved. The train came to a stop and they all made their way back into the building, the security team leading the three women towards Rayne’s lab.

Just outside the door, Juniper unlocked it and looked in to see a few of the scientists lingering about but the rest were most likely getting some food or just on a break. “Here.” spoke Rayne holding the seashell out towards Asena.

“Don’t you want it?” she inquired.

The subtle shift in the older woman’s features was nearly noticeable for Asena; her eyes squinted a bit, her lips pursing ever so slightly and her teeth ground together slightly with just a slight muscle twitch beneath her left eye. To Asena, it seemed like she was internally debating with something. “No. You bought me the bracelets, the least I can do is give you this.” she finally answered.

Instead of voicing anything, she reached forward and took the shell. It wasn’t a big one, it sat in the middle of her palm and was nearly smooth to the touch but deep down, she wondered if it had been like that when Rayne found it or if she had somehow done it while fiddling with it. “You are free for the day.” spoke Juniper making her daughter look up at her. “Go rest and you’re expected back here tomorrow morning, understood?”

“Yes mom.” she chuckled. “Can she keep the cup?”

“She can keep the cup and the bracelet. Go.” she shooed making Asena smile before seeing Rayne nod at her in a silent form of bye.

Asena didn’t fight it, she could’ve but she didn’t. She turned and made her way towards the elevator to take her to the apartment floor as she reached her right leg up to undo the clasp on her right heel and pull it off. A soft groan escaped her as she felt her aching sole press against the elevator floor before doing the same with her left heel, holding them by the straps with her right ring and pinky fingers. She flicked her braid over her right shoulder as the doors opened and she walked to her apartment, unlocking it and stepping it. She dropped her heels by her door with a clatter before setting her purse on the table by the door and looking down at the seashell.

Turning it over, she let out a small surprised noise as her left thumb rubbed against words she knew were not naturally put there by the sea. ‘ _Thank you_ ’ was carved into the back of the seashell. A soft laugh escaped her as she realized Rayne had never verbally thanked her and why she wanted her to have the seashell.

Gently dragging her thumb nail across the letters, she let out a soft chuckle. “You’re welcome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 will have the breach I mentioned in the summary. I just wanted to give the fic a bit of "normality" before everything went to hell lol.


	3. Chapter 3

Two weeks had passed since her “date” with Rayne and Asena was allowed to return to her other specimens, her stitches removed from her shoulder and nothing left but a scar that would hopefully fade over time. Rayne was still kept on her roster after being put back to work normally, Rayne being the last one for the day but the otherworldly woman wasn’t happy at the moment, she hadn’t been for the past twelve hours. Now normally Juniper could call Asena in to calm the woman down but that was practically impossible when Asena wasn’t even on the island and who knows how many miles away trying to capture a newly discovered CS.

“I didn’t agree to this.” breathed Asena, there was a lot of shakiness in her voice.

“Actually you did.” spoke Leon as he was in front of her.

When Amelia approached Asena and asked her to go to New Orleans, Louisiana she had instantly said yes. What she didn’t know was the fact they had to go into the bayou...and walk through the bayou. “I love my job.” she whispered. Now she worked with terrifying contained specimens, she knew how to terminate most of them if it ever came down to that but right now the only thing that worried her was being bitten and attacked by an American Alligator. “Are we even sure if this deer exists?”

“Oh it exists missy.” spoke a man that OWCO hired, Jacob if she was correct, his voice heavy with a New Orleans accent. “It’s as big as a bear with antlers on fire.”

She rubbed at her eyes before pinching the bridge of her nose. “Right, right…” she whispered. Why was it so hard for her to believe this? She worked with Rayne on a daily basis, she worked with a Wendigo, coal sprites, and the 511 that they still hadn’t named because it was really hard to name a creature sometimes.

What happened next was all too quick for her, she must’ve stepped in a hunter’s trap cause something instantly tightened around her right ankle before it was yanked out from under her. A shout erupting from her as her back slammed down on the ground and she was quickly hoisted upside down, her body connecting painfully with the tree and her vision swam for a second due to her head hitting it. Leon grabbed her arms and saw the woman knit her brows together. “You good.”

“Ow.” was all she could manage.

Jacob sighed and walked over as several OWCO security guards got closer in case. “Son of a bitch! I told those men not to go after the deer but no...they want to see if it’s antlers burn when it’s dead.”

“Think Rayne felt that?” teased Leon only to bust out laughing as he saw Asena glaring at him. He saw Asena look to the side and her glare disappeared before she began to freak out.

“L-Leon!” she shrieked, making him turn only to be hit by something hot and hard.

A deer, not as fat or wide as a bear, stood nearly as tall as a Grizzly bear would when standing on its hind legs, it’s antlers not burning a usual red/orange color of fire but a blue color. Naturally, Asena seemed almost instantly fascinated with it before screaming as it reared up a bit and began to charge at the young woman. Jacob slammed his body into the young woman and swung the both of them out of the way before cutting the rope quickly, both of them slamming down on the ground.

Jacob grabbed the back of her OWCO standard issue shirt to get her onto her feet before she pulled herself from him and ran towards Leon who was groaning from where he was laying. “Tranq it!” she ordered, making the security aim and open fire. It wasn’t the same tranqs as the kind they used to contain Rayne, they did have it on them but Asena was mostly worried an overdose of elephant tranqs could kill it. She grabbed Leon’s arms and dragged him with her as the creature released a noise that could be compared to a dinosaur roar but the kind that a movie put together.

“Try one Elephant tranq!” shouted Leon as he was pulled onto his feet by the younger woman.

One of the guards did as instructed and fired, it lodged in the deer’s neck and within a few moments, it didn’t collapse but lowered itself down into a laying stance before falling asleep and rolling over onto it’s right side. “Call it in.” ordered Asena. “We need to get it contained and shipped to Andromeda Island.” One of the guards nodded and did as instructed as Asena grabbed her backpack off the ground and opened it, she tossed a measuring tape at Leon while holding onto one end. She grabbed a pen and a small notepad before measuring the deer. “It’s ten feet long.” She shifted and they measured it’s height .”And seven feet, six inches tall.” She jotted down the information.

Leon tilted his head as he stared at the deer’s stomach only to look confused as he saw something move. “Um...only male deer have antlers right?”

“Eh, depends on the species. Like reindeers and caribou have antlers regardless of gender, why?” she asked.

“Cause I think it’s pregnant.”

That made Asena look at him with a weird look before rounding over and fish around her backpack before finding the stethoscope the two usually brought to insure that the CS’ heart was alright. She put the parts in her ears and pressed the diaphragm part to the creature’s stomach and moved it slowly before knitting her brows together. “There’s...we need to get it to OWCO quick.”

“What?”

“It’s...she’s pregnant alright, I hear two maybe three other heartbeats.” One of the guards shouted, making her look up and sorta glare at him, he had touched the antlers. They weren’t on fire at the moment but were still burning, instead of chastising him she just rolled her eyes. “I’d prefer if she gave birth at OWCO and not on the plane. Call an immediate extraction of the creature now, Leon and I will wait to be picked up!”

The woman paused and made a noise making Leon look, she looked instantly ill and watched as his best friend moved towards the bushes quickly and threw up. “She hit her head, she might have a mild concussion.” spoke Jacob. “Do you guys have a medic?”

Leon nodded as he walked over toward Asena to pull her hair away from her face. “They’re in town. We tend to try and keep the medic out of the way until the end of capturing a CS if it can be helped. They’re not trained for…” he motioned around them. “Someone phone the medic, Dr. Marlowe possibly has a mild concussion.” One of the guards nodded as a large plane came flying over them before it’s propellers turned to hover before lowering to the ground.

The creature was put in a cage, strapped down for not only it’s safety but the safety of the employees that would be near it. One of the scientists charged with ensuring it made its way back to the island gave Asena a clipboard and a pen, she quickly signed it before going to go find her bottle of water and get the nasty throw up taste out of her mouth as Leon signed his own name. “Let's get you guys back into the city, shall we?” asked Jacob as Asena hummed and nodded.

A fan boat ride and a short car ride later, they were back in New Orleans and Asena was sitting in a chair as the medic was flashing his light in her eyes to check her pupil's reflexes. “Are you tired?”

“I just had adrenaline going through me after being nearly impaled by a flaming deer.” Asena signed.

“Tired more than usual, I mean?” She shook her head at the question. “Alright, just the throwing up?” A nod this time. “Yeah, it’s probably a mild concussion. A headache might set in soon but we’ll be on a helicopter back to Andromeda soon and you can sleep on the way back.”

Asena nodded and inhaled deeply before watching him right out an incident report based on the information but he and Leon gave him. Jacob decided to stick around for some unknown reason but neither doctors were saying anything since they knew Amelia had contacted him to take them to the location. “I hope you two are hungry, my wife is bringing you some food for your trip back.”

“Ah nice! That’s awesome of you!” spoke Leon at a level that made Asena flinch slightly, a sharp pain going in her right temple.

“Well Amelia mentioned Asena might need to eat on her way home, so one call to my Hope about our granddaughter needing food for the trip back to Andromeda Island and she jumped on it.” That statement made Asena look at him through narrowed eyes.

Both men looked at her and wondered if she was acting like that cause of her head pain or something else. “I’m sorry, I’m your what now?”

That actually caused Jacob to laugh. “Typical Amelia. Lemme guess, she didn’t tell either of you that your contact was her father? Jacob Lycan?”

“Amelia said she never told her parents about her relationship with my mom.” Asena spoke.

A throaty chuckle from the man made Leon look between the two. “We are extremely aware of Amelia’s relationship with your mother. We’re just letting her think that. She brought Juniper with her last time she was here for a creature and it was obvious they were...not to sound raunchy here, that they were fucking. How long have they been together by the way?”

“I’m twenty-five now and they’ve been together twenty years, maybe twenty-two. I’m not a hundred percent positive. I was a kid when they got together.” she answered truthfully. “But she’s like my other mother so…”

Arms went around her and she let out a weird noise as she was hugged and it wasn’t a gentle hug either, he put her in a full on bear hug. “Well it’s nice to meet you.” he teased before patting her head.

“Yeah.” was all she could muster, mostly because it was a weird situation and she dealt with weirdness on a daily basis.

They had to wait for another transport to come and get them, so at some point, Asena was leaning her cheek against her fist as she had her eyes closed. She wasn’t asleep but there was a slight throbbing in her right temple, spreading towards some of her forehead and the sun was just agitating her. Perhaps she just lost the amount of time that passed because Leon nudged her as a woman walked up to them, when looking at her Asena realized exactly how similar Amelia looked to her mother.

The woman, Hope, kissed Jacob’s cheek before looking towards the table Asena was sitting at with Leon. Jacob had brought them to a nearby waterfront cafe as they waited for their ride. “My word.” spoke the woman’s obvious New Orleans. “You are pretty!”

“Thank you?” she asked, sounding a tad confused as she leaned back against her fist and squinted her eyes. “I’d be more enthusiastic but I’m suffering from a headache at the moment. I just wanna take a nap but the doc won’t let me until we’re on the helicopter.”

Hope nodded and moved to sit beside her, setting a lunch box down on the table. “I made you guys po-boys. I made four so there’s two for you both, it’s a fried chicken version since I was unsure if you both liked seafood. Even if you don’t finish them both today, they’ll keep for another day or two. It has lettuce, pickles, and creole mustard on it. I had no tomatoes otherwise there’d be some on there. There’s also some soda and chips in here for the both of you.”

“It’s fine. Thank you.” Asena managed before flinching at the throb in her head.

Hope set her purse down and dug around in it until she pulled out a bottle of excedrin. She opened it and took Asena’s free hand to tap two into it. “This helps me the best.”

Asena looked at the medic, he nodded before turning to the newspaper he was reading and she took it instantly. “Asena can be irritable if she has a headache, so thanks.” chuckled the younger man among the three there.

Rolling her blue eyes, she sipped at her water before rubbing at her eyes and groaning. “How long have you been working for OWCO?” asked Jacob as he decided to steal a chair from another table and sit with them.

“How old am I again?” she asked mostly to herself. “I’m twenty-five. I’ve been roughly working there since I was eighteen but the first two or three years I was an intern. So together I’d say seven years, Leon has the same amount of time as me. We were interns together.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” asked Hope making Asena’s face scrunch up almost in disgust as Leon busted out laughing.

The other OWCO scientist was trying to calm himself down. “If you look up lesbian disaster online, you’ll see her face.”

She shouldn’t have been as annoyed by that statement as she was but she chose not to say anything. She knew it was all because of her headache. “I’m...very gay, yes.” she chuckled as Hope smiled and Jacob nodded. “And no, I don’t have a girlfriend. My first one, we broke up on good terms but my last one cheated on me and well...we’re not on good terms. I swear she tries to make me jealous whenever we run into each other.”

Leon let out a small scoff at the mention of the ex and looked down at his coffee. “Still wish you met her while with Rayne.” That was something Asena was thankful for, she didn’t need to worry about what Rayne would’ve done if they met.

“Who is Rayne?” asked both of the other adults.

Fuck. How in the fuck did she answer that? “Someone I’m interested in.” she lied. Was it really a lie though? “She lives on Andromeda and...is tall. Super tall. Seven feet tall.”

“The height difference is cute.” added Leon making Asena roll her eyes. Why did everyone say the height difference was cute?

Jacob and Hope hung out with them until the helicopter landed in the nearby parking lot. What Asena hadn’t expected was how Hope hugged her as if she had known her all of her life, as if she had been her grandmother all of her life but that didn’t stop her from returning the hug. Asena wasn’t blessed like most people, Juniper was estranged from her own parents so Asena lacked in the grandparents department except from those occasional scientists that seemed like a grandparent in a way and Hope made her feel comfortable, safe, and warm...like a grandmother should. She watched as the two stayed near the parking lot until the helicopter was raised up high enough to take off and she chuckled. She’d have to talk to Amelia when they got home, try and convince her to tell Jacob and Hope about their relationship with Juniper without, hopefully, letting Amelia know that they knew.

The medic and Leon had given her an entire bench to herself, she ended up laying down and passing out fifteen minutes after leaving New Orleans and remained asleep until ten minutes out from OWCO.

In Rayne’s lab, Juniper was going to pull her hair out. Rayne had been irritable for the past half an hour and she had no idea why, the woman complained of a throbbing in her right temple. Medicine didn’t work on Rayne, they had tried numerous times over the years so why she was telling Juniper, she had no idea but the past ten minutes she began tapping all of her sharpened nails against the window in a rhythm. “I really wish we knew how to kill you cause I really wanna kill you right now.”

“When does your daughter get home?” asked Rayne as she kept drumming her nails against the windows.

Juniper huffed and looked at her watch. “Soon, they should be ten or twenty minutes out.” She saw the board look on Rayne’s face and tilted her head at the CS. “She had to work, Rayne.”

“Yes, yes…” she waved her hands a bit, as if shooing Juniper. “But I don’t see why she had to leave the island.”

“She. Had. To. Work.” forced out the redhead as she saw irritation cross Rayne’s face. A man came into the lab and bent down beside Juniper, whispering in her ear making the redhead knit her brows together.

The one thing Rayne didn’t miss was the look of concern that crossed Juniper’s face. “What happened?” she asked as Juniper stood up. “Juniper! What happened?!”

“Nothing, I need to go.” she lied, Juniper pushed her chair in.

The second the door opened, there was that angry rumbling from the other woman. “Juniper! WHAT HAPPENED?!”

A light was flashed in Asena’s eyes making her recoil and smack the hand away. The doctor sent to ensure the medic’s diagnosis was correct, just sighed at the reaction. “Dr. Marlowe.”

Asena moved hair away from her face and let out a small sigh of her own. “I just wanna rest okay? The medic kept an eye on me all the way back to the island. My headache is gone. I’m hungry, want a hot shower, and some coffee. Not in that particular order.”

The doctor rubbed at his face as Juniper came walking up. “What happened?”

“When we were after the CS, she got caught in a hunter’s trap and her head collided pretty painfully with a tree.” answered Leon.

Pursing her lips in thought, Juniper saw Asena flinch when the doctor pressed against the side of her head that hit that tree. “And…?”

“The medic was right, her pupils are acting normal. She hasn’t thrown up anymore except for the one time in the bayou and said her headache is gone so she just has a mild concussion. If her symptoms come back…”

“I’ll send her to the med-bay. I know.” she responded. She saw the lunch box that Leon passed Asena and raised a brow. “Where’d that come from?”

Leon and Asena looked at one another, down at the lunch box and then at Juniper. “Okay so we need to talk to Amelia about coming out to her parents.” stated Asena.

The older redhead pinched the bridge of her nose. “They knew?”

“They knew.” said both of the younger doctors.

Juniper rubbed at her face and chuckled. “I was wondering why her mother kept questioning our relationship when we were last there for work. Alright, we’ll speak to Amelia in a while. Can you come with me and help me calm an annoying CS?”

“Rayne being irritable?”

“Rayne is beyond irritable.”

Asena let out a soft chuckle and stood up. “Leon, can you put that in my fridge?” she asked motioning to the lunch box, he had already eaten his on the way back to the island. He nodded and moved to grab his stuff as Asena followed her mother.

The bright lights of OWCO did cause the young woman to squint, a slight throb in her head from the brightness. They made their way to Rayne’s lab and Asena never knew exactly how much she missed the other woman just from being away for half of the day. The dark haired woman nearly jumping out of her seat once seeing the redhead on the other side of the class. “What happened?” she asked, making the younger woman look confused. “I have a headache, what happened?”

Juniper raised a brow, confused as to what Asena had to do with Rayne’s headache. “I got stuck in a hunter’s trap, hung upside down and my head connected with a tree. Quite painfully I might add. Why would you have a headache?”

“Cause we’re connected.” she stated, poking the glass. “Or rather I’m...infatuated with you and so your pain becomes mine. Your anxiety becomes mine.”

The look on Juniper’s face was almost priceless but Asena seemed to be confused at first. “Wait...you mean like how you saved me from the Wendigo?”

“I felt your anxiety.”

Asena looked at her mother, the woman shrugging and looking actually confused. “I thought it was a fluke. We don’t know how she works. Rayne’s an enigma. A very annoying enigma.” Rayne stuck her tongue out briefly at the woman before looking back at Asena.

The younger redhead just smiled up at the otherworldly woman and she saw the slight flutter of Rayne’s eyes as she inhaled deeply. “Should I work?” she inquired as Rayne’s nails lightly ran down the glass, leaving small scratches in their wake.

Juniper shook her head. “No, you suffered a mild concussion, you are to take it easy today whether that’s you going back to your room and staying there or going into town but you will not strain yourself today.” There was a slight noise of irritation. “Rayne wouldn’t want you getting worse...now would she?” 

This time she looked directly at the otherworldly woman, knowing she was irritated at the thought of Asena not being there today. While Asena would listen to Juniper, if Rayne would agree then it would solidify what the mother was trying to do. “No.” she sighed. “No, I wouldn’t. If your mother says to take it easy then please take it easy. You could...go into town.”

“Wow that’s taking a lot for you to agree with mom.” snorted the 25 year old as Rayne rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll head into town. See Martha and Pete. Perhaps if someone behaves…” her eyes locked with the taller woman’s eyes. “...they’ll get a treat. I will be checking in with mom.”

“Yes, yes.” sighed the darker haired woman as she waved her hands. “Go, rest. Get better so I can see you all day tomorrow.”

Asena just smiled at Rayne before looking at her mother. “I’m going into town.” Her mother hummed her acknowledgement before feeling Asena kiss her cheek and left.

The first thing to do was head back to her room and change into clothes, settling on a pair of blue jeans with some rips and top had Coffee spelt with the periodic table. She made her way to the train, hoping to get there in time before it left and luckily she managed to slide through the doors just before they closed shut. She shifted and sat down on a seat as she relaxed a bit, the sun making her squint a little but her phone said the weather should be getting cloudy in the next hour, maybe she’d chill at a cafe or bother Martha and Pete for an hour. She ran a hand through her hair as the train departed from the OWCO train station and headed towards the town. She looked around and saw a few scientists taking their lab coats off, most likely going on a lunch break or getting ready to head home for the day.

After some sitting and daydreaming, the train came to a stop. Getting off, Asena jogged down the station’s steps before walking to Martha and Pete’s. She saw the door propped open by a chair, newspapers sitting on it and she hummed as she shifted one of them to read the headline. She made a noise as she saw it was one of those conspiracy theories about OWCO as it’s headline, maybe that’s why Martha or Pete stuck it outside. Nobody but those theorists would buy the newspaper with a headline like that or if they did, they tossed out the page with the headline.

“Hello Asena!” said Martha’s voice, the young woman looking into the building and smiling. “Heard rumors you got to head off the island.”

Walking into the building, she felt it was cooler inside of the building than it was outside. “Yeah, nothing exciting.” she lied. She approached the counter and looked at the display case full of freshly baked treats and realized the cup cake she had originally got for Rayne was still sitting in the back of her fridge. Well...fuck. “Can I have a donut?”

The older woman moved to the display case and opened the door. “Which one?”

Looking, she saw several normal donuts but normal was too boring for her today even if she almost always got a Boston Cream Donut. She raised a brow and hummed as she examined them. “That one.” she poked at a donut that had white icing but on top of the icing was a cereal she knew she liked, bright in color and a tad fruity in taste...well artificial fruity.

Martha grabbed a bag and picked up the donut before putting it away for the young woman. “You want a drink?” A nod. “Your usual?” Another nod. Martha moved to get her drink done up, not the usual kind in the lightbulb drink but the other kind she always ordered before. A little bit of coffee, vanilla, carmel and some blue berries to turn the drink blue. “You know, you never actually told us what Rayne did.” That caused a brow to raise. “For a job.”

“O-Oh!” she managed. “She works for…” she trailed off, her eyes looking around frantically before resting on the machine behind Martha that said ‘Lykaios’ written across it. “Lykaios Industries. She’s part of the company’s PR or whatever companies need to get rid of bad press or just handle press in general.”

The older woman nodded and smiled at her. “When will she be visiting again?”

“Uh...I don’t know yet. Why?” she asked as she swiped her credit card and put in her pin number.

“Cause you two are so sweet together you could give the healthiest man diabetes.” That caused Asena to try and not roll her eyes. “I mean it’s obvious she’s in love with you.”

Was it obvious? She took her bag and the cup as she tried to think. She knew Rayne was interested in her but was Rayne actually in love with her? “Yeah well...I…” she trailed off as she felt her cheeks heat up. “Love her too. I’m lucky.”

“We better get an invite to the wedding.” teased Martha.

The young woman nodded quickly before waving and leaving the store. “Well that was…” she trailed off as she tried to find the proper word. “Embarrassing.”

Taking the donut out of the bag, she crumpled the bag up and tossed it into the trash before taking a bite of the donut and nearly cringing at the first shock of sweetness that her taste buds registered. It wasn’t that she had an issue with sweetness, it was just that she wasn’t expecting it even if she figured it would be sweet. It was like someone poured a cup of sugar into her mouth but she adjusted to it. She stopped by one of the other stores and looked around before deciding on buying a bag of fruit for herself to make a fruit salad for dinner and decided to just head back to OWCO.

“Oh boy.” she breathed as she saw the conspiracy theorists doing their protests, signs saying OWCO was poisoning their town or we were using them as experiments. “Sort of wish today was the day Rayne got to walk around.”

She shifted the bag on her arm and drank the rest of the coffee from Martha and Pete’s then tossed the cup into the trash. “Marlowe!” shouted one of them as they pointed at her.

“Douche canoe!" she shouted in the same town, towards the man that said her last name. The leader of this stupid little group that had actually attacked one of the doctor’s before. She was glad they stayed clear of pregnant doctors cause last time they tried to attack one, one of their security had put that man on his ass so quick, he didn’t even realize what happened. “Out of the way.”

“What is your company doing?!”

“Classified.” came the well practiced answer. “Move please.”

The man and the others got in her way and she huffed. “What are you doing up there?”

“Well I was gonna make a fruit salad but your bitch ass is in my way!” she spat out in annoyance. “And other than that...it’s classified. I will not lose my job because some asshole with a conspiracy theory wants me to tell them the real reason behind OWCO. So...Fuck. Off.”

The man approached her and she stood her ground, a rumbling feeling appeared in her chest and she instantly clutched at her shirt, that wasn’t her anger...that was Rayne’s. “What is going on here?” asked a sweet sounding voice, authority behind it. Looking, Asena saw an older woman looking at the group of people curiously.

A raven or crow, Asena could never tell the difference, sat on her right shoulder and she was holding a basket of various herbs and some mushrooms. “Stay out of this…”

“I will not. Let her by.” ordered the woman. “Last time I watched their security knock several of you down, do you really wish to repeat that? I mean I’m all for it, it was funny.”

The mention of the security made several of them look unsure about being there, two out of the two dozen actually left. Asena went to open her mouth and say something but her phone went off, she pulled it out without looking away from the group of people and answered. “Hello?”

“Why is Rayne looking like she’s going to throw a fit and figure out how to escape her room?” asked her mother’s voice. “She keeps...rumbling and it’s scaring the interns.” Well the feeling in her chest was definitely because of Rayne.

“Send security.” she spoke, making the leader look at her with wide eyes. “I’m trying to get on the train and our favorite annoyances are refusing to let me through.”

She heard Juniper sigh on the other end of the phone. “Explains Rayne’s mood. Alright. Hold tight, security will be there shortly.”

Hanging up, the woman slid her smart phone into the pocket of her pants. “Security is on the way.” she spoke.

“I’ll stay with you.” smiled the woman. “To ensure they don’t try anything.”

The young woman hummed and gave a small smile but she made the mistake of turning her attention towards the woman because the leader, who’s name still escaped her, went at her with the intent on tackling her. The older woman shouted something and before his body could collide with Asena’s, a body slammed into his and he hit the ground. “Pete!” was all Asena could manage upon realizing who just saved her.

Pete stood over the man he had knocked down and made sure to be his most intimidating and totally not a teddy bear. “Be glad it was me, asswipe. My wife would’ve tazed you.”

“Martha’s been itching to use that taser.”

“God she’s been itching to use it.” stated Pete as Asena snorted with laughter. “Good, so now I have two people to help me while I wait for security. Where were you anyways? I went to the store.”

The man rubbed at his stubble and let out a small laugh. “Had to go handle a shipment issue, was on my way back to the store and saw these guys. I know they cause you and any other employee issues, should really talk to Amelia about posting security down here.”

He had a point, she knew Amelia considered it a few months ago after an incident but she was pulled off into a different direction and completely forgot about it. The two remained with Asena and eventually when the security arrived, many of the protesters/theorists left mostly because they didn’t want to be arrested. Those that chose to stay were quickly handcuffed and waited until the actual police arrived.

“What is your name?” asked Asena.

The woman with the bird, Asena still didn’t know what if it was a raven or a crow, looked towards the red head. “Nicole Greene.” She held her hand out and Asena took it quickly, shaking her hand. “This is Birch.” Asena looked at the bird that was perched on Nicole’s shoulder, he was looking around and didn't seem to care about the other woman being there.

“Asena Marlowe and you named him….Birch? Like a Birch tree?”

“Yes, I named him Birch.” she huffed. She saw Asena looking at Birch and raised a brow. “Are you trying to figure out which he is?” A nod. “He’s a crow. He is very friendly, if you must know. I live in a cabin in the forest just outside of the town, he’s been my companion...for years. I would’ve gone crazy living on my own if it hadn’t been for him.”

Asena smiled as she watched the crow look towards her and tilt his head. “That’s cute.” She heard the sound of the train approaching and she nodded. “Well thank you very much for helping me, I must catch my train and get back to OWCO.” She walked backwards and saw Nicole nod.

As the young woman jogged up the stairs, she let out a puff of air as she knit her brows together. “Of course Rayne found herself a human to latch onto. How many is that now?” Birch gave a small cawing noise. “Maybe she’ll actually love this one and not go crazy. Let's go home.” She turned and Birch leapt from her shoulder and began flying in the direction of their home.

The train opened as Asena approached it and stopped as she saw Elizabeth standing there with her husband and two suitcases. “Hey…” she said, making the older woman look at her. “You guys heading somewhere?”

“Mom wants me to have the baby at the mainland and in all honesty, I’d prefer that. After…” she trailed off, she was indicating the Wendigo attack and Asena swore her scars itched at the thought. “So we’re catching the ferry coming into port in about…” Elizabeth looked at her watch and grimaced. “Ten minutes. We gotta go.” She kissed Asena’s cheek and her husband patted the young woman on the back. “Thank you Asena.” That caused blue eyes to look confused. “For doing what you did. To protect me.”

“Ah anyone would’ve done what I did.” she stated as she backed up to step into the train.

Her husband laughed and shook his head. “I doubt that very much.”

The redhead shrugged and just smiled at him. “Have a safe trip and good luck!” The doors closed as she gave them a wave. The train moved and she waved at them until they disappeared out of sight, the young woman shifting to grab a hold of the pole near the door she was standing beside.

Getting back to OWCO was no issue and getting to her room was quick and easy, nobody bothered her and even though she passed by an irate Dr. Shaw, who proceeded to insult her, she just continued on her way and gave him no mind. She unpacked the fruits she had and left two pomegranates in the bag before sticking them in her fridge and kicking it shut; they were Rayne’s. She proceeded to wash, peel and cut the other fruits she had; pineapples, oranges, blueberries, kiwis, and dragonfruit with a package of pomegranate seeds since she wasn’t in the mood for staining her fingers today. As she was pouring the honey and lime dressing she made the night before onto her salad, the door opened and she saw Juniper dragging Amelia with her.

“I only got enough fruit to do myself a salad. Y’all fucked.” she stated as Amelia sat down on a stool and held her hands in her head. “She okay?”

Juniper turned Asena’s coffee pot on and nodded. “I told her about her parents, I decided a direct approach was better than trying to convince her to just tell them. She’s a little...shocked. I guess she thought her parents would be very against the two of us dating. So...coffee. Coffee fixes everything.”

Amelia ran her hands down her face and groaned loud. “They fucking knew.”

“Were you two arguing last time you were there?” Amelia nodded and Juniper shrugged. “Yeah you two have a lot of sexual tension when you argue. Like one of you wants too, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this cause I don’t need the image, rip off the other’s clothes and fuck them agaisnt the nearest solid object.”

She set the bowl down in front of the stool beside Amelia and sat in it. “So...sorta like how Rayne looks at you?”

“Rayne looks at Asena like she’s gonna devour her.” corrected Juniper. “I still don’t like it.” She set a cup of coffee in front of Amelia and kissed her cheek. “Coffee fixes everything.”

The way her mother worded it, she knew she meant it in the most sexual manner ever and it caused her cheeks to turn a bit pink. “Rayne does not look at me like…”

Her mother held up a hand and made a noise that told her to shut up. “She offered to show you her cock multiple times. Trust me...she looks at you like she wants to devour you.” That just made Asena scrunch up her face a bit. “I still don’t like it…”

“Yeah you’ve said that.” was all the 25 year old could manage to say.

Juniper just raised her brows before looking at Amelia and she patted her cheek. “She’s in shock.”

The strawberry blonde ran a hand through her hair and groaned. “My parents knew, of course I’m in shock!” she nearly shrieked.

Asena just chuckled and shook her head as she lightly patted Amelia’s back and hugged her. “Don’t worry, my mom knows about me.” Amelia groaned loud and Juniper just chuckled.

About a week passed from Asena getting her concussion. She ended up needing the two days off after that day due to serious headaches but the doctor she visited the morning of the day after her concussion, said it was normal. So she was given several days off to ensure the headaches had time to pass. From what Juniper said, Rayne was more irritable than usual and that sort of made her giggle, of course Rayne was irritable when Asena wasn’t around.

The red haired woman gathered her hair and tied it back into a ponytail before shifting her lab coat as she walked towards the observation lab. The door opening once her card was swiped and she stepped into the room to see several people moving around, looking over tests and what not. Juniper wasn’t there yet, the young woman hummed and raised a brow; okay that was...odd. Juniper was always there before her.

“Hey.” spoke a voice, she looked around to see if it had been another scientist but finding that nobody was up her ass, she looked at the window to see Rayne standing by it.

Her cheeks turned a little red at noticing that Rayne had literally no shame and stood there in her bra and panties, both black and lacy. She could’ve sworn it was a bit see through and she could see Rayne’s nipples if she looked hard enough. “Clothes, Rayne.” The red eyed woman grinned a little. “Now!”

With a chuckle, Rayne moved around quickly and returned to the window in about ten seconds wearing a black flowing dress and matching heels. She just shook her head with a chuckle as she watched the older woman eye her up and down; taking in the sight of Asena’s low cut top and her jeans. “You look pretty.”

“I look like I grabbed the first thing I saw in my drawers but thank you.” she responded as she put her hands into her lab coat pockets. She turned as she saw people moving around and she inhaled deeply. “Hey, where’s my mom?” 

Those that heard the question, shrugged and she looked extremely confused. “It’s very rare, extremely rare, for Juniper to be late.” spoke the black haired woman. Asena just nodded, she wasn’t wrong. “Last time she was late was...ah…” she trailed off, trying to remember. “When did you stop breastfeeding?”

“Uh...before I was two? I dunno.” Asena answered. “I’ll be back.”

The young woman grabbed her card and phone before leaving the office. Security ran by her and she was nearly plowed over by one of them, thankfully an Intern catching her in the process. She opened her phone and saw texts from Leon, all of them asking her what was going on because he couldn’t get a hold of anyone at OWCO; that was more unusual than Juniper being late. She had to avoid a few more other security as she made her way to Amelia’s office. She opened the door and it was nearly shut in her face but she heard her mother shouting, the door opening and showing a security officer that quietly apologized.

Juniper looked...well ragged was an understatement and Amelia looked worse. “What’s going on?”

“Go back to Rayne’s observation lab, now.” stressed the older redhead as she pointed at the door.

Her mother sounded freaked, panicked almost. “Mom, what’s going on?”

Juniper just pushed the question aside and pointed more forcefully that Asena was surprised she didn’t pop her shoulder somehow. “It’s the only place you will be safe! Go there! NOW!”

“Not until I figure out what the fuck is happening!” Shrieked the 25 year old. “It’s bad when even Rayne can tell something is wrong because you are never late! She said you haven’t been late since I stopped breastfeeding! The other scientists are acting borderline anxious. I think I heard one of them read a test result three times cause they were unsure if they read it.”

The two older women looked at each other then back at Asena. “Someone is hacking OWCO.” spoke Amelia, the security officer rolling his eyes and sighing. It was most likely classified or they were on a time frame.

“Okay the Andromeda Branch…”

“They’re hacking into EVERY SINGLE OWCO.” forced out Amelia. “It might be that conspiracy theorist group we struggle with, that they think if they hack into our database all around the world they might get something that proves we’ve been experimenting on the towns near each branch but all that will happen is the high possibility of them releasing every single specimen that every branch has.”

Asena narrowed her eyes and looked down at her phone to see a new text from Leon that just said ‘?????’ meaning he was hoping it would spur an answer. He was out with his sister Chrissy at the moment. “How high?”

Neither of the women said anything for a moment before Juniper spoke up. “Ninety-seven percent.”

“OWCO has the best firewalls…”

Amelia instantly cut her off. “They broke through them and if they broke through them, there is a chance we cannot stop them from going further. There...is a ninety-seven percent chance that there will be a world-wide breach that could rival an apocalyptic event. You think what we have is dangerous?” She let out a humorless laugh and shook her head. “There’s things that could potentially make Rayne look like a kitten.”

The young woman tried to process this, tried to open her mouth and say anything but her mother had other ideas. “That is why I want you with Rayne. Out of everything in this building, Rayne could easily dispatch it...I hate to say this, she could protect you where I nor any of us could.”

Quickly moving to Amelia’s desk, she set her hands on it almost forcibly to the fact she heard the rattle of the tea cup. “How bad are the other specimens that other branches have?”

“We have a fucking creature that can create a plague that is basically a zombie apocalypse.” quickly spoke both of the women.

“W-Where?”

Juniper looked at Asena and titled her head. “What city in the US has the highest population?”

“U-Um…” Asena narrowed her eyes as she quickly tried to remember. “New York has eight million, four hundred five thousand, eight hundred and thirty-seven people.” Juniper tilted her head and raised a brow. “You put it in New York?!”

“We didn’t do that.” stressed Amelia.

Running a hand through her hair and exhaling heavily as she tried to think. “Okay and...what is...happening?”

“Right now. You…” Juniper pointed at the Security Guard. “Take her to two eighty-nine’s lab. Now.”

The security guard grabbed her arm but she quickly yanked it back. “N-No. I can go myself. I’ll go by myself.” She moved over and kissed Juniper’s cheek before doing the same to Amelia. “Let me know if anything happens.” Juniper nodded before watching Asena leave the office.

Blue eyes looked around almost frantically as she tried to think. Exactly how dangerous could the facility get if every door for a CS was opened? The Wendigo alone could kill two dozen people without slowing down and just thinking about it made her shoulder ache. She groaned and rotated her shoulder a bit before heading towards the direction of Rayne’s lab. Her phone vibrated and she looked down to see Leon wasn’t texting her, but calling her.

She hit the answer button and put it to her ear. “Yeah, Leon. I would’ve gotten to the texts eventually.”

“What is going on? I cannot get a hold of anyone and I needed to check on the sprites. I had to leave early and I mean early, cause Chrissy had an asthma attack in school and used the last of her inhaler. So I needed to go and get her to the pharmacy to get more.”

Asena looked behind her before rubbing at her jaw in thought. “Leon, listen to me.” the firmness in her voice made him instantly shut up. “It’s bad, like apocalyptic bad…I can’t believe I’m going to say this, grab supplies and get her spare inhalers. Now. I don’t know how bad this is going to get but…”

Within seconds, the alarms that hung in various points in the hallway switched on and began flashing red. “Attention all OWCO Scientists and employees: There has been a massive breach. Please evacuate the building in a calm and orderly fashion.” spoke a voice. A voice recording given how calm the person was saying it. Perhaps deep down Asena thought her co-workers would be calm and orderly, know what to do but oh how she was wrong.

The second the words ‘massive breach’ came across. There was chaos. She grunted as she was nearly rammed down but thankfully an intern caught her and righted her before running. She looked down and saw she must’ve hung up in the hit and heard screaming, blood curdling scream. “Rayne...I need to get to Rayne.” she breathed before running.

Scientists, interns, and other employees ran around her, crashing into each other and ultimately causing more issues than the specimens would’ve. Opening a door, she quickly ran down a set of stairs to get to the floor that Rayne’s lab was on and was shoved by a doctor, her body slamming into the wall and she grunted. She pushed herself off and hugged the right railing as she quickly went down the other set of stairs before running through the door onto Rayne’s floor. She shrieked as the flaming deer she had captured in New Orleans a week ago had nearly rammed into her and impaled her. Unfortunately two other scientists weren’t as lucky and she tried to look away once seeing one of them get impaled but the view in the direction she looked wasn’t pretty either.

“Werewolf.” she managed as she saw one of the werewolves that Amelia was in charge of and no, not because of her last name. It looked at her with blood coating it’s mouth and she was almost certain it could smell her fear. She broke into a run and it made a noise before running after her. “Rayne! RAYNE!”

She didn’t turn a corner fast enough and the werewolf slammed into her, sending her into the nearest wall that just so happened to have a vending machine in the way. Her body collided painfully with the vending machine and she hit the ground with a grunt, her body tried to take in breaths in order to get the air that was knocked out of her in the hit but all that happened was a wheeze. The werewolf growled as it slowly advanced, what was it doing? Toying with her by taking it’s time?

Asena looked at it as her back throbbed in pain, glass on the floor around her since her body impacting the machine’s glass caused it to shatter. She jumped slightly as a bag of chips landed on her right hand and the werewolf growled louder. What did she do? It was still a good few feet away from her, if she was fast enough then she could run. She shifted her legs a bit and the werewolf let out a more threatening growl, it sounded deeper and she knew it was warning her.

“Run.” she growled too herself before forcing herself into a run and the werewolf leapt at her, the human ducking to avoid the creature from hitting her and it slammed into the door of a nearby lab.

As she ran around a corner, she screamed as she felt a body collide with hers but she didn’t fall down; arms went around her in an almost protective manner. She leaned her head back and saw Rayne looking down at her with a surprised look on her face. The howl made Rayne quickly back them up into a lab and shut the door, a loud thump coming from the werewolf hitting the door but Rayne had her body pressed against it and she let out a rumbling growl; a way to deter the werewolf perhaps.

Looking down at her own hands to examine them for injuries, she noticed that Rayne wasn’t wearing her heels anymore and the bottom of her dress was damp. “W-Why is your dress…?”

“Take a guess.” was all that came from the woman as she heard the werewolf leave, a scream coming from down the hall; the werewolf found a new target. “What happened? My door just opened and the look on the scientists in the lab was priceless. I think two pissed themselves.”

“B-Breach. Massive breach.” Asena managed, her breathing coming out fast and Rayne grabbed her wrists to pull her closer, her back staying against the door just in case. The young woman was close to hyperventilating and while Rayne wasn’t sure how to help her, she just slid her right hand into Asena’s left and gently held her right wrist with her other hand, her fingers pressed against her pulse point. “Amelia said…”

Rayne shushed her gently. “Deep breath first. Take a deep breath.” Something slammed against the door and Rayne barely seemed phased while Asena’s breath came out a bit faster at that. “Asena, deep breath.” The redhead took a deep breath and released it slowly as Rayne nodded. “What happened?”

“Amelia said that someone was hacking OWCO...b-but not just our branch. L-Like every branch that OWCO has.”

The dark haired woman nodded as she listened before tilting her head slightly towards the ceiling, her red eyes moving around. “There’s a helicopter on the roof.” She shifted and opened the door, peaking out she could see humans trying to escape, panicking, and she could see specimens that were either not a threat or a serious threat. Looking back at Asena, she held her hand in hers and she could feel her pulse racing. “You do not, under any circumstances, let go of my hand. Do you understand?” Asena looked down and if there wasn’t the high possibility of her being killed by a CS, she would have blushed. “Asena!” A nod came from the younger woman.

Rayne pushed the door open before tugging her into a run, Asena almost visibly flinched as she watched the dark haired woman run over glass barefooted. Looking both ways down the hallway, there was death and CS feeding on the corpses or slowing dying people they got their hands in. She led the human across to the door that went into the stairwell and she opened the door, pulling her in and Asena yelped as she slipped a bit. Rayne caught her and saw that Asena had slipped in a puddle of blood that was coming from a dead scientist that was laying against the wall. She instantly blocked the view with her body before leading Asena up the stairs, both of them running up every flight before running out onto the roof where the helicopter was.

Only thing was, it wasn’t just a helicopter but a helicopter that had screaming Juniper on it, a screaming Juniper that was being restrained by two suited men. “No! NO! That’s my daughter! Stop!” she shrieked as the helicopter was several feet off the ground. Rayne rushed towards the helicopter, grabbed Asena’s waist and lifted her up to grab the landing gear of the helicopter but it was too high. “NO! NO! ASENA!”

“Fucking land!” shouted Amelia. “We’re not leaving our kid!”

There was more intelligible shouting that maybe Rayne would have understood what was being said but she couldn’t. Asena stared up at the helicopter and Rayne dropped her, the woman landing in front of her gently. “Juniper!” Rayne shouted but Juniper was too frantic. “Dr. Marlowe!” That caused the crying older redhead to stop and look down in shock. “I’ve got her!” Juniper shuttered as the helicopter raised higher, about to take off. “I promise!”

Asena let out a small whine as tears slid down her cheeks, her mother and Amelia were being physically forced to evacuate but she wasn’t. She knew her mother would never leave without her and the only way someone could force either woman to leave without Asena would be by physical force. She couldn’t hear her mom by this point but she could read her lips as she told her that she loved her. “I love you.” she repeated before the door behind them was broken down and Rayne turned around instantly, Asena freezing up as she saw the wendigo standing there.

“Alright. Round two?” asked Rayne but the wendigo was looking at Asena. It ran at Asena and Rayne ran at it, the woman colliding with the wendigo and they both hit the ground. Asena felt like a deer trapped in headlights.

Perhaps it was the mild PTSD she had from being attacked by the wendigo that forced her body to freeze up at the sight of it. Rayne and the wendigo were rolling around, clawing and just fighting one another until the woman put her legs on it’s stomach and kicked it so hard, it slammed into the railing before it broke and the wendigo fell off the roof. There were three long cuts across Rayne’s left cheek, her dress was ripped to the point her right tit would be hanging out if it wasn’t for her bra, and she had several other scratches here and there just from their small little tussle before Rayne got rid of it. She moved at Asena and easily picked her up in her arms and ran through the door, racing down the steps until Rayne actually made a mistake. Blood had been on the steps, she should’ve remembered if it was there on their way up or perhaps someone came through or the wendigo left it, but she slipped and the two fell down the rest of the set of stairs Rayne was going down. The woman made a noise as she felt her body painfully collide with the ground as Rayne landed half on top of her, her breasts pressing against Asena’s left hip.

“Ow.” she whined softly.

“Sorry, sorry.” quickly spoke Rayne.

God, she was going to be sore come morning. “We can’t go back to your floor.” The dark haired woman looked at her. “There’s too many labs there. To many labs equals to many creatures. At least half of them are good, the other half…” she trailed off as she shifted to sit up, groaning as her ribs hurt a bit but she wasn’t sure if that was from the fall or perhaps earlier when she slammed into a vending machine.

The otherworldly woman nodded as she tried to think herself. “Okay, well where is safer than my lab?” she asked.

“My apartment maybe? The doors and glass are made of the same material as that of the labs’.” She reached into her pockets before inhaling deeply and freaking out. “Fuck, no. No!” The dark haired woman raised a brow. “My card for my apartment is in your observation lab with my other stuff.”

Rayne stood up and walked to the door, peering inside of it she could see very minimal chaos. “Alright. Let's find you somewhere to hold up, I will run to the floor my lab is on. I will grab your stuff and things I need.”

She held a hand out and felt the 25 year old take it, she lightly helped her onto her feet before opening the door and walking through. “This is a floor with apartments but mine is a floor lower. T-There is a security office on this floor.”

Leading the woman down the hallway, she tugged her closer until Asena was nearly against her back and she got the idea. Rayne wanted her to stay as close as possible but without releasing her hand, so she slid her free hand onto her back and gripped at the fabric of her dress. Something shattered followed by a scream and Asena inhaled sharply as she buried her face into the woman’s back, Rayne gently shushing her as she kept the two of them moving down the hall as her eyes locked onto the sign that said ‘Security’ over a door near one of the hallways. She grabbed the door and pushed it open to see the security room was empty, not a single person, dead or alive, was inside of it. Pulling Asena into the room, she shut the door quickly and released her hand to check the back room.

“Nobody’s here.”

Asena ignored the statement as she approached the wall of monitors and she looked at it as she watched CS, both dangerous and non-dangerous, moving around every floor. There were so many dead or injured employees that she wondered if any escaped from the madhouse that OWCO became after the breach happened. There was an explosion but it took Asena a moment to realize that it wasn’t in the building that it happened. “No, no, no.” she moved towards the window that overlooked the town and she saw another explosion happen in the town. “Specimens got out...s-specimens got…” she trailed off as she tried to think. No, that meant Martha and Pete were in danger.

Rayne moved over to her and grabbed her shoulders. “Listen to me.” Blue eyes looking at her. “I will be right back, alright? It won’t take me long. I’m going to grab your things and grab what I need, then we will go to your apartment. Okay?” A nod but Asena looked away making Rayne grab her jaw in her hand and force her to look at her. “You will not, I repeat, will not leave this room until I get back. Do. You. Understand?”

Asena licked her own lips nervously before nodding. “Yes, I understand.” She was released and she saw Rayne move to the window. “Please hurry.”

Without a word, she just smiled at her and opened the door to go into the hallway. The otherworldly woman moved down the hallway and slipped back into the stairway, shutting the door behind her. “Get Asena’s things, my things, get back to Asena.” she whispered to herself as she held up the front of her dress and quickly ran down the stairs until she reached the floor she knew her lab was on.

When she opened the door, she hadn’t realized exactly how much chaos had truly happened until now. When she ran into Asena, she was purely focused on the human and keeping her alive. There were corpses, either that were killed before she found Asena or that died shortly after getting her to the roof. She could hear other specimens in the area and she raised a brow curiously as she turned a corner and saw a man look at her but his skin was almost scaly, his teeth were little sharp, razor blade like teeth and his eyes were yellow. She snarled slightly and he backed out of the way; okay so a CS that had rational thinking knew when someone was stronger than them.

She rounded a corner to head to her lab and stopped as she saw the flaming deer with three little flaming fawns, their antlers super tiny and little wisps of fire on then. “Well that’s...cute.” she managed as she tilted her head. She did notice that there were dried flecks of blood in the fur of what she assumed was the mama deer. One of the babies walked up to Rayne, the woman looking down curiously at it and she could feel the heat from the wisps of fire on its antlers through the fabric of her dress. “Hello.” she crouched down and the deer tilted it’s head almost like a curious cat or dog, watching the woman. She held her hand out and the deer sniffed it before licking it, she did take note that it’s tongue was blue. Gently patting it’s head, she stood back up and continued walking over to the lab.

The mama deer just looked at her before turning to whatever it was doing with its other two babies, the one that approached Rayne going back to it’s mother. The door was left open but she did notice there was blood on the handle and smeared along the doorframe. That wasn’t there when she left, she nudged the door open with her right foot and saw an employee, either a scientist or an intern, laying against the furthest wall and blood was pooling under them.

The injured man looked up and inhaled deeply at the sight of Rayne, the sharp inhale causing him to visibly twitch in pain. “You’re CS two eighty-nine.” Rayne just narrowed her eyes. “You’re a...a level f-five classification. M-Means you’re…”

“Dangerous. I’m aware of my classification. I’ve been a level five classification for twenty-six years now.” she spoke as she approached Asena’s desk. She saw her purse sitting there and she grabbed it, ensuring she grabbed any loose items she thought Asena might have brought with her and stuffed them into her purse. “What attacked you?”

He grabbed at his bleeding side and hissed sharply as he watched Rayne grab the container of rock candy off Asena’s desk. “CS seventy-six.”

The dark haired woman looked at Juniper’s desk and grabbed the family photo that sat there. “I don’t know what or who that is, so…” she trailed off.

The injured man let out a soft chuckle before his chuckle turned into a deep, wet cough as blood came out of his mouth. “S-She’s also a level five…” Rayne just shrugged, she didn’t know what he was talking about nor did she really care. “She’s...her skin is blue. She has o-obsidian shards coming out of her skin. Speaks Jap...Japanese.”

“And she injured you?”

“She’s dangerous.” he managed, she noticed his teeth were tinged red from the blood he coughed up and the wound he was trying to put pressure on was larger than his hand could cover. “Sh-She can do this thing where...where she screams and releases obsidian shards from her body l-like shrapnel from a bomb. I-I’m just l-lucky she didn’t use her paralyzing v-venom.”

Rayne looked at him and sniffed slightly before stepping towards the door that led to her room. “You’re bleeding out.”

He tried to laugh but more blood came out of his mouth. “I-I’m aware.” he forced out. “W-What are you doing.”

“Getting my things then returning to Asena.” she spoke as she fished out a box from one of her closets and set it on her bed before grabbing her clothes and tossing them in about as neatly as she could.

She noticed he looked confused for a moment, his brows coming together in question. “A-Asena? Little Dr. Marlowe?” Rayne nodded. “She’s alive?”

Picking up her typewriter, she gently laid it down into the box on top of her clothes. “She is alive.” She confirmed as she opened the drawers to her desk and pulled out everything she’s written in the past twenty-six years, setting them carefully into the box. “And she will remain alive if I have a say in it.” He just watched as she moved around her room, gathering a few items and placing them into the box before she pulled out a small metal tin, she used her right thumb to open it and peer inside before setting it into the box, putting Asena’s purse on top of that with the rock candy tub and closed the box. “I could make it quick.”

The man just raised a brow. “Are you off…” he coughed a bit and his hand went over his mouth. “Are you offering to…”

“Put you out of your misery? Yeah.” she quickly spoke, no shred of emotion lacing her voice. “You can say no, won’t bother me much cause I really don’t care one way or the other. You could bleed out for all I care.”

The man just nodded as she walked out of the room, setting the box down on Juniper’s desk before stepping closer to him. She crouched in front of him and grabbed his face in her hands, she looked at him as she waited for his confirmation and he gave one more small nod. Without hesitating, she twisted his neck and heard a visible crack come from him. His body went limp almost seconds after she snapped his neck and she stood up, stared down at him for a moment before stepping over to the box to grab it and leave the room.

Getting back to the security room wasn’t a hassle, nothing bothered her but she was well aware that the same little fawn was following her until she closed the door to the stairwell. She opened the door to the security room and saw Asena underneath the desk where security would sit and watch the monitors. “What happened?” she asked. “Why are you under the desk?”

“I saw something flying by the window and I know it wasn’t a bird. Birds don’t repeatedly attack glass to get to someone and I panicked.” Asena rushed out. “I wanted to hide.”

Rayne set the box down and lowered herself to the floor by her, taking one of her hands in hers and sighing as she felt the rapid pulse. If Asena was on the verge of an anxiety attack, she wasn’t saying or showing signs but she did seem to relax a little once her hand was in Rayne’s. “I grabbed everything I needed and your things.”

The redhead looked at Rayne’s dress, her legs and eventually her feet. “You need a shower.” she muttered.

“We both do.” whispered the otherworldly woman as she used her free hand to scrap some dried blood away from a cut on Asena’s jawline. “Let's get you to your apartment.”

The 25 year old just nodded and let the other woman pull her out from under the desk before doing the same as before and pressing herself close to Rayne’s back, this time her now free hand grabbing at the fabric on Rayne’s left side as they moved through the hallway. They went down the set of stairs and into the hallway of the floor that Asena lived on and thankfully there wasn’t much happening, there were some rooms left open that could possibly be due to people leaving quickly once the breach happened or perhaps a CS got inside; not that they suck around long enough to figure that out. Asena got the cards out of her purse and swiped it, the red light on the card reader turning green and it allowed her to open the door so they both could walk into it. Once the door shut behind them, it was locked from the outside but could be opened from the inside. The two women walked further into the apartment and Rayne looked around, taking everything in before setting the box on the counter in the kitchen as Asena moved to the balcony door.

The town below was in chaos, some buildings were on fire and she swore she could almost hear distant screaming and gunshots. She gripped her own head in her hands and inhaled deeply as she tried to think. “I-I don’t know what to do.” she managed as Rayne walked over to her.

The woman wasn’t sure if this was the right time to hug Asena but she could almost hear Katherine’s voice in her head, telling her to hug Asena to give her some form of comfort. Carefully, she slid her right arm over the redhead’s right shoulder and wrapped it over before placing her hand on her left side just under her breast as her other arm went around her waist to pull her against her front and just hug her. “You said every branch was affected?” A nod was her answer. “Then...I’m sorry to say, there’s nothing that you can do.” A sharp inhale came from the younger woman before she slumped a little and put her hands over her face as she silently cried. “You’re only one person, Asena.” She rested her chin on top of Asena’s head as she looked out at the town. “All I want you to do right now, is focus on surviving.”

“Martha and Pete…” she cried, she pointed at the town. “T-They’re down there an...and…”

Gently shushing the woman, she pressed a kiss to her right temple and tightened her grip on her a bit. “There is nothing we can do right now.” Rayne tried as she rocked them slightly in hopes that it would calm the redhead, it used to calm Katherine but she knew every woman was different. “Your body is running on adrenaline right now, come a few hours or tomorrow morning, you’ll be sore but right now, I want you to go shower.”

“W-What?”

“You are going to go shower.” ordered the dark haired woman as she released Asena and peeled her lab coat off, flinching at the sight of her shirt being torn up in the back. “You are going to shower and I am going to tend to your wounds.”

Pushing the young woman’s shirt up a bit in the back, she ran her thumb over a wound and felt the scrap of her thumb pad against a piece of glass. She angled her thumb and caught it with her claw before Asena groaned loud as she felt the piece of glass slip from the wound and into the woman’s palm. “I’m wounded.” was all she could manage.

Rayne hummed and slid her shirt up further to see several small cuts. “What happened before I reached you?”

“The Werewolf slammed me into a vending machine.”

Pursing her lips, her eyes darkened a bit as she tried not to get mad; not at Asena but at herself for taking so damn long to reach her...she could’ve prevented this. “Alright. Take your shower. Don’t wash your back, I will handle this mess after. Wash your hair and your front. Don’t get dressed after, it’ll be easier to do it without clothes in the way. Well, you can put panties on.”

If she was in a better frame of mind, Asena might playfully accuse her of trying to just see her naked. All she could do was nod and walk away from the taller woman and disappear into her bedroom, stripping herself along the way and leaving a trail of clothes. Once she went into the bathroom, Rayne picked them up and tossed them into what looked like a hamper. “Um...there’s a medkit in the kitchen.” she spoke as she turned her shower on. “I have it sitting on top of my fridge.” She heard Rayne’s very low confirmation that she heard what she said but she wasn’t going to have her repeat what she said. Instead she wet her hair and lathered it up with her shampoo as instructed before washing her body without touching her back but given the stinging sensations she felt in various places, she knew she was more cut up than just on her back.

Once assured that the shampoo was out of her hair, she turned the water off and climbed out. Her body was already starting to ache a bit and she wanted to lay down and sleep. Pressing the towel to her front, she walked out of the bathroom and into her room to grab a pair of clean panties and pull them on as Rayne walked in, the towel having been dropped in the process since it was hard to put panties on with one hand. “I…uh...okay.” Did Rayne just get flustered at seeing her without the towel covering her? “Can you lay down on the bed? On your stomach?”

“Yeah.” She walked over to the bed and laid down as Rayne opened up the medkit; pulling out the bottle of rubbing alcohol, gauze, and some tweezers that may or may not be better than just picking at the glass in a certain angle with her claws but she’d see. Rayne shifted to sit on the edge of the bed and gently ran her hands over her back, she could feel scraping against the palms of her hand and knew there was glass embedded in certain cuts. “Some of these cuts have glass in them, so you’ll most likely feel an unpleasant and possibly painful sensation as I pull the glass out.” Asena just nodded as she pulled her pillow closer and pressed her mouth against it.

There was the sound of glass shattering followed by screaming and Asena squeezed her eyes shut as the sound of something impacting with the rocks below. “R-Rayne…”

The older woman moved and looked at the TV before turning it on, nothing was on but a warning to seek shelter and she sucked her teeth in annoyance before flipping through each channel in hopes of something, anything to drown out the noises for the young woman. She lucked out, amidst all of the channels telling people to seek shelter or to try and evacuate the island, she found a channel still running and used her middle finger to turn the TV up a bit so all Asena could focus on was the sound of the show. “I’m doing this in hopes it’ll drown out most of all the noises, even if it doesn’t, you can focus on the TV.” She moved back to the bed and sat on the edge as she grabbed the tweezers.

Rayne dragged her thumb over each cut, starting from the top, and carefully removed each piece of glass that embedded itself at the impact. She shifted her own hair as she found a piece that was at least half an inch long, a small groan leaving Asena as she arched her shoulders back before the dark haired woman got it out. “I-Isn’t there an easier way to do this?”

“Theoretically...yes.” She stated as she pulled out a smaller piece of glass from another cut. “I could use my powers to reach in and pull the shards out but…” Her red eyes trailed over the numerous little cuts on the young woman’s back. “I’ve never done it. I can heal you, I could numb the cuts with my tongue but I’ve never used my powers to remove foriegn objects from a human. Katherine swore up and down that I did it once, that I used the powers on her, but in all honesty the only object I helped remove from her was our daughter. I saw a lot of her vagina that I couldn’t play with that night.”

“Rayne!” she groaned making the woman snort with laughter. “You’re so crude.”

“I like raunchy but yeah, I am.” the red eyed woman confirmed with a small smile, the corners of her eyes wrinkling just a bit. If Asena was in any state to notice or if she could even see it, she’d notice that the wrinkles suited Rayne, showing she was older than Asena even if it only looked like it was by ten or fifteen years. She pulled the last piece of glass out of Asena and set it aside. “Alright, so you’re lucky, while you have loads of little cuts…” she lightly drummed her fingers down her back. “So, I need to clean and bandage.”

The red head shifted against the pillow and was staring at the TV. “I’m sleepy.”

Folding up some gauze, she got it wet with the rubbing alcohol. “That’s normal, you’re most likely crashing from the adrenaline that was coursing through you. So...if you fall asleep on me, that’s kind. I promise I won’t feel insulted.” She wiped at the cuts and heard a small intake of breath from Asena as she shifted at the stinging sensation she felt from the rubbing alcohol cleaning the cuts. She kept cleaning the small little wounds when she heard a change in Asena’s breathing, she tilted her head to look at Asena and saw that her eyes were closed as she was hugging onto the pillow. “And you fell asleep on me. Okay…” She reached over and brushed hair out of Asena’s face to tuck it behind her ear before returning to finish up with her wounds.

It was nighttime when Asena finally opened her eyes, most of the lights were out and the curtains were drawn, her black out curtains that stopped light from getting in or out. Her mother’s ideas since migraines ran in the family, she only knew what time it was due to her alarm clock reading it was 10:23pm. She heard movement and instantly sat up, grabbing at her back as she felt a weird feeling and felt bandages over the cuts that bled the most. The TV was still playing, a drama was on that she didn’t know the name of since the only thing she really watched was movies or the news. Rayne came into the bedroom and stopped as she saw the 25 year old sitting up in her bed, her eyes briefly flickering down at the redhead’s chest before locking eyes with her. 

Clearing her throat, she pointed briefly. “Ah, your tits.”

The young woman grabbed her blankets and covered her chest. “W-What happened? I mean I know...what happened…”

“There are some humans in the facility still, most are either dead or have escaped into the island. Um…” she shifted slightly and Asena noticed Rayne had changed out of her dress and was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top that she knew for a fact didn’t belong to Rayne but were her own clothes. “The city has been affected.”

“The c...the city?” she asked, a look of dismay on her face. “How bad?!”

Rayne ran a hand through her hair and huffed lightly. “Casualties are...somewhere in the thousands and still climbing.”

The City...the city where she knew Leon and Chrissy had been when he called her. She tried to breathe normal but it came out shaky and she pressed her fingers through the blankets to press them against her chest. “W-Where’s my phone?”

“Dead, I just stuck it on the charger before I came in here.” Great, so now she had to wait for a while to even try and attempt to call Leon. “There’s no phone signal.” Well there goes that plan. She buried her face into her blankets and fell back as she tried not to cry, tried not to scream, and tried to keep her heart rate normal. “There are some humans left in the facility but they ran each time they saw me. One of them ran right into…” Rayne paused as she thought. “Um...I dunno what it even was but it spits acid and drolls acid and it spit acid in the guy’s face before...well...I thought I was sick and twisted, I’d rather not go into details cause it bothered even me and I’ve ripped people into pieces before so…”

“How many have escaped?” Rayne opened her mouth to answer but just shut it and shook her head as she gave a small shrug. “There are nice specimens, very nice. They could be classified as a danger like twenty-one, twenty-three. She’s a mermaid lizard person, don’t ask we’re not even sure, but she’s not a danger and is incredibly sweet. There’s the three twelves and…”

The dark haired woman got onto the bed and held her hands out in a successful attempt to shush her. “Listen to me. Right now, there is nothing we can do. Right now you are going to rest for the remainder of the night and we will sort all of this out tomorrow. If I need to go and get your three twelves, whatever the fuck those might be, I will do so.”

“I don’t wanna…”

“Asena Juno!” hissed the red eyed woman, the human flinching lightly but looking more surprised than anything at the usage of her middle name. “You were thrown into a vending machine by a werewolf, we fell down a flight of stairs and you watched as your mothers were taken into a helicopter and evacuated, forced to leave you behind. While I not only worry about how your body is feeling, I need you to be mentally okay.”

Shifting her pillow up against the wall, she shifted back as she watched Rayne shift as she sat on her knees, her legs still beant but now spread and she was sitting between them. How the fuck was that comfortable. “Nothing about this is okay. You want me to rest to be mentally okay? Can I be mentally okay after watching several coworkers killed, nearly being killed by a werewolf and a wendigo…”

“I wouldn’t have let that happen.” growled Rayne.

Asena just continued, ignoring Rayne’s interruption. “Knowing that the people I know in town are most likely dead or will be dead. I cannot be mentally okay, Rayne. You think just the werewolf and the wendigo were dangerous, there were nearly a hundred level five classifications and perhaps more that I wasn’t privy to. Some of them might be sweet and some of them might be incredibly dangerous to the human population, but while I do understand where you’re coming from, it’ll be a long time before I am mentally okay.”

Carefully, the woman crawled across the bed and sat beside her with her back against the wall. “I need you to be okay.” was all the woman could manage. “Do you understand me? I need you to be okay.”

Asena tilted her head back and saw the taller woman gritting her teeth together, her eyes seeming glossy but she could chalk that up to being a part of her imagination, she looked stressed and...fearful? “Rayne…” She waited a full minute to see if the woman would answer but once realizing she wasn’t getting an answer, she shoved the blankets off and got out of bed.

“What are you doing?”

Ignoring the question, she opened a dresser drawer to pull out a sports bra and quickly pulled it on while making sure she wasn’t ripping bandages off in the process. She quickly pulled her hair out and moved back to the bed, she tugged the blankets back and out from under Rayne’s legs before covering her up and moving back to sit beside her. She pressed her left hip against Rayne’s right and leaned against her as she covered the both of them up. “I’m not staying in bed with you while my tits are out.”

A flicker of a smile formed on the woman’s face. “I like your tits.” Asena just rested her head against Rayne and said nothing as she stared at the photo of her mother and Amelia. “I could show you mine.”

Inhaling deeply, she exhaled almost forcefully and just let out a small laugh. “Not tonight, Rayne.” Not giving her a no caused a laugh to escape Rayne but she chose to not address it.

The arm she was leaning on shifted and she felt it go behind her as she lightly ran her fingers through Asena’s hair, her claws gently scratching at her scalp in a soothing manner. “Get some more rest, we’ll talk in the morning.”

Her eyes drooped a bit and her body felt achy in certain places when she moved but she was oddly comfortable leaning against the other body in her bed. “Rayne.” A soft hum came from the older of the two, the claws still gently scratching. “Thank you.” She leaned more into the otherworldly woman’s warmth and easily fell back asleep, thankful that her stress and worry about what tomorrow might bring didn’t stop her from falling right back asleep. Thankful that Rayne, for some unknown reason, had decided Asena was someone she needed to care for.

Rayne combed the hair back from Asena’s face and she slid her fingers across her cheek, watching as the human slept against her. “Don’t thank me yet.” She placed a kiss to her forehead and rested her head on top of Asena’s.

**Author's Note:**

> If there is any mythological or supernatural creature you'd like me to possibly add in to the story as a CS (Contained Specimen) please let me know, I'll do the research and see if I believe they'd fit into the story or even if you have ideas on what sort of made up creatures I should have.


End file.
